In late 2002, Eidos Interactive, one of the world's leading publishers and developers of entertainment software, announced Backyard Wrestling: There Goes the Neighborhood for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. Backyard Wrestling was developed by Paradox and was released in the Summer of 2003. The game is based on the best-selling Backyard Wrestling video series that has become a worldwide phenomenon selling millions of copies of VHS tapes and DVDs in addition to successful pay per view events.
"Backyard Wrestling will redefine the wrestling game genre for next generation consoles," says Kevin Gill, senior product manager at Eidos. "Breaking free of the restrictive ring and non-immersive environments that have traditionally been offered in the genre, Backyard Wrestling will be the most outrageous and over-the-top extreme wrestling and action game available on the market today."
Backyard Wrestling places you in the role of an aspiring wrestler. You must be prepared to endure extreme amounts of pain and take incredible risks in order to move one step closer to the BYW title and ultimately be crowned 'The King of Hardcore'. But the road to glory is long and dangerous. Dozens of weapons including thumbtacks, barbed wire, light bulbs, baseball bats, tables, trashcans, and stop signs are at your disposal to help re-arrange the faces of new challengers. And did we mention the fire?
Enter the fully interactive and destructible environments to the awesome in-game soundtrack and prepare for battle. Learn to master ultra-violent moves including grappling, throws, and hand-to-hand combat as you brutalize your opponents into submission. Real life BYW characters such as Josh Prohibition, MDogg20 and Karnage head up some of the competition. See them bleed with the innovative damage model system allowing characters to get cuts, bruises and gashes all over their bodies depending on the moves they've been doing, and more painfully what moves have been done to them!
The controversial and shocking US phenomenon of Backyard Wrestling has been around almost as long as professional wrestling. It was unorganized, undocumented fun but has now evolved into something much more. With the popularity of 'hardcore' or 'deathmatch' style wrestling on TV, people were no longer satisfied with just being spectators and took playful wrestling with their friends to the next level. Where a bunch of guys would once play fight in their yards, they now perform outrageous stunts. Backyard wrestlers think nothing of throwing opponents off 25ft high rooftops onto flaming tables and inflicting super violent acts with baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire.
The first edition of Backyard Wrestling did so well among gaming fans, that another is set to be released in September of 2004! The graphics, gameplay, soundtrack, and any other glitches from the first game have been severely tweaked, and the result is a thousand times better! New for the sequel, and any wrestling game for that matter, is Online gameplay! More will be released as the game's release date gets closer, but expect nothing short of devastating! |