The popular Backyard Football series touches down for the first time on the handheld system and is intended for players seven and older. Players can choose from 32 professional football teams featuring real pros as kids, or they can create their own stars to play in pickup games, exhibition games or a full season (with statistic tracking). Options include field, logos, weather conditions, and team strategy, as well as three difficulty levels that impact on power-ups, fatigue, and turnovers. Four playbooks offer a variety of offensive, defensive, kicking, and kick return formations and plays.

Backyard Football contains 40 pre-designed player "cards" (male and female) with nicknames, a description of each, and specific ability ratings in running, passing, catching, kicking, blocking, and tackling skills. National Football League players depicted as kids include stars like Brett Favre, Donovan McNabb, Jeff Garcia, Jerry Rice, Michael Vick, Peyton Manning, Ricky Williams, Rich Gannon, and Terrell Davis. Two players can link via Game Boy Advance cable for head-to-head action. ~ Michael L. House, All Game Guide