Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This at Home

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Backyard Wrestling: Don't Try This at Home

Developer(s)	Paradox Development
Publisher(s)	Eidos Interactive
Designer(s)	Kevin Gill
Release date(s)	July 9 2003 Xbox & PS2
Genre(s)	Sports
Mode(s)	Single Player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Mature (M), for Blood, Intense Violence, Mature Sexual Themes, and Strong Language
Platform(s)	Xbox, Playstation 2

Backyard Wrestling is a video game developed by Paradox Development, and published by Eidos Interactive in 2003 for Xbox and PlayStation 2. The goal of backyard wrestling is largely to use your environment to defeat your opponent.

The featured wrestlers come mostly from rap group Insane Clown Posse's own wrestling federation, the Juggalo Championshit Wrestling. These include Mad Man Pondo, Sabu, Tom Dub, Rude Boy, Josh Prohibition, MDogg20 and the clowns themselves, Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope. Other celebrity appearances include Miller Lite spokesmodel Kitana Baker and former WCW valet Tylene Buck.

Aside from the standard backyard locations, Backyard Wrestling's arenas include a truck stop, a slaughterhouse, an outdoor parking lot, a talk show set and a strip club. Each environment is littered with barbed wire-laden bats, fluorescent light bulbs, breakable tables, steel chairs and other objects players may use to injure their opponents.

Also this game featured FMVs that you could unlock by completing certain objectives while fighting in the different venues. Mostly they are taken from the "Backyard Wrestling" DVD series, and they have the different songs of the game playing in the background. The first one on the backyard level was "Backyard Babes 101", which contained the backyard babes near-naked over Bowling For Soups' song "Punk Rock 101", featured on their "Drunk Enough To Dance' album. Mud pools, water pools and sun tan lotion are all featured in this clip. Other FMVs, like "Collateral Damage" and "Kids Today..." are also featured, including 2 clips of ICPs wrestling promotion, JCW, with 2 of their songs playing in the background.

The game had a "Story" like mode, entitled "Talk Show Mode" circling around a show called "Today's Topic". The talk show host, a character that resembled Kevin Gill, one of the game's creators, interviewed different victims and personalities of backyard wrestling. After the interview, your character would be placed where the victim was and you would fight 3 other backyard wrestlers. You had to face 3 opponents with one health bar.

Released in 2003, the game went on to sell nearly half a million copies worldwide. Its reception from critics was lukewarm, but player interest was high enough to justify the development of a sequel. (Backyard Wrestling 2: There Goes The Neighborhood) was released the following year, including more wrestlers and moves but mostly the same game play.

This video game is not related to the Backyard Sports series.