The Backyard Sports video game franchise is stepping up to the plate with a new 2D-animated special in the works. 

Playground Productions, which has been spearheading the revival of the ’90s IP for more than a year, has just pulled back the curtain on Sticky Situation. This one-off tags along with the Backyard kids as they help a teammate find her lucky bubble gum before game time. 

According to Deadline, the Chicago-based studio financed the project independently with US restaurant and entertainment company Dave & Buster’s, so the plan is to make Sticky Situation available at Dave & Buster’s arcades nationwide, as well as on the gaming brand’s YouTube channel.

Ireland’s Lighthouse Studios (Goldie) produced the special, with Mike Roberts (Bojack Horseman) directing and Joe Purdy (Hey Arnold!) penning the script. And Tiffany Haddish and Arturo Castro are headlining the voice cast.

Sticky Situation is tied to Backyard Sports’ baseball segment, and this announcement appears to be strategically timed to coincide with the World Series. Released in 1997 by Humongous Entertainment, Backyard Baseball was the first game in the franchise, which expanded over the years to also include Backyard Soccer, Backyard Football, Backyard Basketball and Backyard Hockey. Playground holds the rights to these brands as well, so there’s plenty of room for more animated projects focused on different sports.

In its heyday, the Backyard Sports IP made a mark thanks to its diverse representation of kids, and it established partnerships with most of the major US sports leagues. The brand’s revival is part of a broader industry trend of tapping into sports content to reach co-viewing audiences. Over the past year, Playground has been relaunching many of the classic Backyard Sports game titles (originally released on CD-ROM) on more Gen Alpha-friendly devices. Backyard Basketball ’01 and Backyard Hockey ’02 are due out on Steam next month, for example.