Backyard Hockey (series)
Backyard Hockey is an ice hockey video games series created by Humongous Entertainment and Mistic Software that was published by Atari and Infogrames. It was first released in June 2002 for Microsoft Windows. Additional titles were released for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. A total of four Backyard Hockey games have been released, these include the original "Backyard Hockey", "Backyard Hockey 2005", "Backyard Hockey" for Game Boy Advance, and "Backyard Hockey" for Nintendo DS. Over the different releases Backyard Hockey was developed by only Humongous Entertainment for the original and 2005, but was developed by  Humongous and Mistic Software for the Game Boy and DS releases. In a similar fashion to other titles in the "Backyard Sports" series, players create their own teams choosing from more than 30 "neighborhood kids" who each have their own unique strengths and weaknesses. Players may also choose from several National Hockey League hockey players as children, some of these players are Steve Yzerman, Mike Modano, Joe Sakic, Jaromír Jágr, Jarome Iginla, Martin Brodeur, and Curtis Joseph. 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" and very few penalties are called.