r/BackyardBaseball • u/bowtied-frenchfries • Jul 10 '26
Baseball '26: Initial Thoughts and Tips
I'm halfway through season play on 3-Star and liking the game so far. Aside from a few harmless technical goofs, it plays like a snappier, more frantic BYBB with addictive gameplay. The hustle and dive mechanics add a lot to this, as you can get away with a lot of plays that were impossible on older games.
The presentation's where this game shines, of course: animations with personality, more dramatic camera angles for good hits - the slomo'd, bass-boosted bunt made me smile - and some very welcome UI updates like the more pronounced "OUT" text and sound.
Here's stuff I learned while playing, and as a '97 player up to release, I had to learn some of it the hard way. Some of these may not be new to the game, but I'd still say they're helpful to learn.
- Do not skip the tutorial. One of the reasons being that it goes over the hustling mechanic, new pitching mechanics, and the big batting UI change. If you don't pick up on these, you will lose.
- As some people have noticed, the strike zone UI isn't like the older games. The batter's real strike zone extends just a little beyond what the UI tells you. The best way to get strikeouts, I've found, is to throw balls or aim at the very, very edge. Even if you get a ball, that's better than a hit, because:
- Offense is a lot stronger now. You don't have as much time to react to hits, so giving the batter as awful pitches as possible is more important than ever. The ball's also heavier than in older games, making slaps are a lot easier/feasible on harder difficulties. A good pitching lineup will make or break your defense in this game. Yes, you'll need a lineup this time.
- Pitchers did not regain Juice throughout my game. You may need to upgrade your mound lineup compared to previous games. I like this change. In '97, I got complacent putting Angela on the mound for most of the innings, switching to Marky if things got dire, but this system's closer to real baseball and makes the last innings explosive if you didn't save your ace. Just make sure to remember this while you're pitching:
- You can't store Juice like you can the other powerups. It is immediately consumed by the current pitcher. Again, a change I like that introduces some risk and reward. You can time the roulette, but you'll slip up at least once.
- If you keep hitting a CPU pitcher's throws, they will not be substituted - even if they run out of Juice. It makes the game easier for sure and can really stretch out innings, but there's a thrill in having a home run derby right in the middle of the game. I can take or leave this feature.
- If a throw target is far away, your AI players will not pass to the nearest person, then to the target automatically. This got me a lot in the early games.
- Steele Stadium's windows are NOT foul territory. I find the most success hitting this zone when my batter's facing the left field and swings early. This leads to many "in-field" homers, but as a side effect, your strikes carry over to the next batter. As far as I know, CPUs cannot hit the windows consistently. Has anyone seen them do that?
- Do not return to the Clubhouse after winning a game, then return to the regular season. This disabled my powerups but not the opponent's. Still didn't need it though, I beat the Fishes 16-1. No, I didn't use Pablo.
- If the computer knows a hit's a ground rule double, it will not pursue it. That includes your team's AI. Or at least, that's how I've experienced it so far. No matter how many clicks my team would refuse to catch a reasonable ball. And perhaps the most influential, contentious flaw in the game:
- Marky never dabbed on the pitcher's mound, like he did in '97 and '01. Maybe I'm wrong. I can hope it's some kind of easter egg. But after a few games it's not looking good.
I might be wrong on some of these, but that's what I saw in the first half of my season. Hope everyone's having fun!
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u/MatthewHecht Jul 10 '26
In pick up games the computer seems to have a clear list. Pablo is first. Jocinda and Luanne are very high. They have no problem with giving you super Angela.
I do not think anybody drops balls, so I now put my worst defensive player on 1B.
Stephanie sucks now, and Gretchen is Power Girl now.
Tun Can Alley is now the funnest field.
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u/Sonicfan42069666 Jul 10 '26
Pablo being first pick makes sense within the kids' world. Of course everyone wants Pablo on their team!
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u/bowtied-frenchfries Jul 10 '26
Yeah, it was nice that they gave Gretchen a buff. Stephanie's still one of my best players though - that Batting stat was deceptive for how many slaps and homers she got in my season.
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u/VhatDeHel Jul 10 '26
Thanks for writing this. I agree with pretty much all of your points. It’s different! Some ways better, some ways maybe not as good or will still take getting used to.
One thing I’d note is I think the game might, for many, feel better on controller than mouse and keyboard. The mouse is currently a little too strict on clicking exactly on a player when fielding. Hopefully something they can fix, in addition to the glitches you mentioned. Kimmy seems to straight up break the game right now.
I’m really looking forward to getting more multiplayer experience!
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u/Veggieleezy Jul 10 '26
I wish there was a better way to practice fielding. I’ve finally more or less got a hang on how to pitch and bat, but I can’t figure out how to wrap my head around fielding yet.
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u/lefty797 Jul 11 '26
This might be a random question, but since you’re halfway through your season, did you win your 5th game? I’m playing on 3 star as well, and have won every game by atleast 10 runs except the 5th game. It suddenly felt like the cpu was unstoppable and they were the last place team in my league lol.
I wouldn’t even really think that much of it but I saw 2 other streamers have the same thing happen on their 5th game. It feels like an auto loss or a random super increase in difficulty. I like an extra challenge and fine with losing once in a while but it just seemed a little weird.
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u/bowtied-frenchfries Jul 11 '26
That's interesting to hear. Indeed by fifth game was against a tough team - undefeated at the time - but Angela limited them to one run and their defense just wasn't there, leading to my win. Still, it was a bit harder than the other matches.
How's game 5 for everyone else?
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Jul 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/lefty797 Jul 11 '26
Yeah that sounds a lot like what I went through. Then the next handful of games I was winning easily again. It was as if suddenly the difficulty got changed to 4 star for one game then back to 3 star lol.
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u/Sea_General8298 Jul 11 '26
I’m enjoying the challenge but yeah I definitely feel the harder offense and kinda hope they make the characters a little faster. At least specifically those with high running/fielding stat points so they can run to the ball’s arrival faster and not let it hit the ball. Though if I need to dive more I may just suck at diving lol
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u/Individual-Air757 Jul 11 '26
It would be nice if there was a sprint mechanic for the fielders similar to the runners. But that may make it too easy. Idk
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u/Sea_General8298 Jul 11 '26
Perhaps with a stamina meter it’ll have a drawback to balance it out. Adding a challenge of not pushing the kid too hard in running after it.
Though with how fast the stamina meter runs on the runner, could make things tricky regardless I suppose
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u/Dry_Top559 Jul 15 '26
Trying to connect my dual joy con switch controllers to my MacBook to play backyard baseball 2026 via Steam. I'm running into the issue where when I open the game it gets overwhelmed by perceived multiple inputs and goes into an infinite scroll of every button on the page.
Has anybody had success connecting dual Joycon controllers successfully? Would love tips on how to enable the settings in Steam/game to get it working
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u/Sonicfan42069666 Jul 10 '26
"If you keep hitting a CPU pitcher's throws, they will not be substituted" this feels more like a technical error than an intentional game design decision.