In the world of entertainment — from TV to movies to video games — nothing sells quite like nostalgia. We are constantly seeing reboots, as studios and networks try to capture the magic of the past, but while it’s easy to drum up initial excitement for the return of a beloved franchise, nailing the execution can be difficult.
The double-edged sword of nostalgia plays is that it’s an easy way to get folks excited, but when people have fond memories of something from their childhood, their expectations for the final product are going to be extremely high. For sports fans of a certain age, the Backyard Sports franchise (headlined by Backyard Baseball) brings back cherished memories of sitting down at the ol’ family computer and letting Pablo Sanchez rip baseballs after school. On Tuesday, Backyard Sports released a teaser trailer for the return of Backyard Baseball, with Pablo and all of your other favorites returning to play ball.
There’s no firm release date, just a website that takes you back to the tree house with the trailer and the ability to sign up for email alerts when there are updates on a release. I’ll be fascinated to see how well a Backyard Sports reboot does, because it was about as simple a game as you could play (but addicting as hell when you’re 12). Will that translate for kids in 2024? Will the adults that remember it fondly want to play it now? We’ll find out, but I will say something I appreciate is they didn’t try to reinvent the wheel and make a huge update on presentation, keeping the same animation and graphics — just looking smoother and faster than they were 20 years ago.