Bully: Scholarship Edition

Rating Teen Genre action Publisher Rockstar Games External Links Official Bully Website

Noone can deny Rockstar games of the innovative steps they have taken to forward the gaming industry. They somehow made ping-pong into a fun and exciting next-gen game. They created innovative game additions like “bullet time” and open-ended game play. Oh, and they have this little game involving carjacking that some of you may have heard about. And now they can add Bully to their already illustrious list of accomplishments. Combining elements of their hit Grand Theft Auto series with the mischief, anarchy, and horniness that comes with being a pubescent boy, Bully: Scholarship Edition is a wonderfully fun romp through Bullworth Academy.

The early portions of the game serve simply as a tutorial mode that guides you through the controls, a layout of the school, and basic tips for getting yourself in to a world of trouble. Once you are done getting the gist of the game, the whole boarding school is yours. You are free to wander the campus, break into lockers and steal anything from a sweatshirt to a box of chocolates, associate yourself with whatever group you like (be it the nerds, jocks, or greasers), and ditch or attend classes at your leisure.

As you go through Bully, you quickly learn that every action you do has some sort of reaction, which is part of the fun of the game. The first time you go to your science class and learn to make fireworks and you decide to throw them at a student in the hall, you sadly learn that the hall monitors WILL hunt you down and try to pin you to the ground for such a heinous act. Or, if you are caught ditching class when the bell rings, someone may catch you and drag you to that class against your own will. Learning all of the do’s and don’ts of the school is half of fun.

And of course, as is typical of Rockstar games, there are almost too many things to be done. Aside from your regular main missions in the game, you find yourself getting tangled up in helping a hobo find radio transistors so he will teach you advanced fighting techniques, finding stray rubber bands and game cards, as well as playing a game of “kick the ball really hard at the nerd.” I spent my first four hours of the game not embarking on missions, but rather wandering the campus grounds in hopes of finding more and more secret things to do, no matter how silly they were.

Overall, I find Bully to be one of the most flawlessly executed games in a long time. I was truly smitten by the sheer fun to be had hidden throughout the school. Whether I was trying to score a kiss from a girl or run for my life from an irate jock, I could not put down the controller. Even when I screwed up and was caught by a Prefect, I wouldn’t get frustrated as I do with so many other games. I just plowed ahead and grew excited for the next challenge that I was to be met with. Bully should certainly be on most gamers “to play” lists. The creativity that went in to every aspect of the game, from the “cliques” to the missions and overall usefulness of the classes speaks volumes for how gaming should be. Games should be innovative and give gamers something they want to keep coming back to. Bully does all of that and then some.