Backyard Hockey is an ice hockey video game series created by Humongous Entertainment that was published by Infogrames/Atari. It is the fifth and last introduced sub-series in the Backyard Sports franchise, although it is not last sport introduced to the franchise. A total of four Backyard Hockey games have been released; the original Backyard Hockey (2002), Backyard Hockey 2005 (2004), Backyard Hockey for Game Boy Advance (2003), and Backyard Hockey for Nintendo DS (2007).
The original and updated computer releases of Backyard Hockey were developed solely by Humongous Entertainment,[2][3] but the two Hockey games for Nintendohandhelds were co-developed with Mistic Software.[4][5] The fourth installment on Nintendo DS is regarded to be the first hockey video game released in North America for such platform.[6]
A remastered version of the original Backyard Hockey entitled Backyard Hockey '02 was released on Steam on November 13, 2025; Mega Cat Studios is the remaster's developer, with Playground Productions as the publisher.[7][8][9]
In the game players control their character in a game of ice hockey. At random times during a game, power ups appear at center ice. Power ups provide help to the team that secures them such as causing all the players on the opposing team to fall over, or super speed. Unique from most ice hockey games, fighting is not allowed in Backyard Hockey (instead being replaced by rock-paper-scissors with the loser going to the penalty box) and a few penalties are called.
† Backyard Sports was removed from Humongous Entertainment's control in 2005. That series is currently owned (since 2021) by Backyard Sports LLC and handled (since 2024) by Playground Productions.
