Bully: Scholarship Edition

Bully: Scholarship Edition is Rockstar's take on high school life. It's inmediately evident that Bully was made by the same guys as those that made GTA. Everything, from the load screens to the hilarious dialogue are feels very similar to Rockstar's controversial series. The game stars fifteen-year old Jimmy Hopkins, who gets transferred to Bullworth Academy by his dreadful mother, as she needs to get rid of him before leaving on her fifth or so honeymoon. Bully is similar to GTA, but it is obviously toned down, as a school-slaughter game would probably get frowned upon. Instead of submachine guns and rocket launchers, Jimmy knocks his foes unconsciouss with stink pellets and a slingshot.

Rockstar has a reputation for great storylines, and that trend is continued in Bully: Scholarship Edition. Jimmy isn't always a likeable character, and I actually outright detested him towards the end of the game, but he redeems

himself in the end. He isn't too bright though, and so gets tricked into doing jobs for people all too easily, much like GTA's protagonists. You may get frustrated as you see that it's plain that Jimmy is doing the wrong thing, yet you must go with the flow of the game. This is one flaw of the story development. The other is that other than the first chapter of the game, you don't actually interact with you nemesis in any way until the very last mission. The only thing you hear of him is a whisper in the background. This makes the final showdown less dramatic, although it still packs a punch. Other than that however, the story and writing come together quite well.

The gameplay in Bully works very similar to the GTA games. You get dropped off at the school, and after a brief encounter with the headmaster, you are free to roam the school and do as you please. At first, only the school grounds themselves are unlocked, but soon the town of Bullworth will be opened up as well. You can take on

missions that are marked on you minimap, and with every mission Jimmy gets closer to total dominion of the school. In the game, you face off against cliques. Every clique is heavily stereotyped; you have your greasers, nerds, jocks, preps and the townies that got kicked out of Bullworth Academy a long time ago and now want to take revenge for it. The story is divided into chapters, and each one has you focussing on taking out a single clique.

The gameplay is pretty basic, but there are quite a few little things to do. You can go around beating jocks up, trip people with marbles, play minigames in the carnival, do challenges to unlock extra safe houses and so on. Frequently, students will run up to you with errands. Because Jimmy is a pretty helpful guy, and because you'll be able to earn money with these, doing these is always smart. There's a wide variety of errands, from things as simple to delivering a package to beating up a group of thugs. Aside from Jimmy's feet, which can run quite fast, you'll also be able to jack a bike, moped or unlock a go-kart. However, one big difference is that Jimmy has a daily schedule. He attends Bullworth Academy, and so he needs to take classes. Most are simple mini-games that involve hitting the right buttons in the right

order, but there are more involved ones. I really like the dodgeball minigame that Gym classes include. Another key difference in Bully is that unlike GTA protagonists, Jimmy does not have infinite stamina; he needs to sleep. If you aren't in bed by 2 a.m., Jimmy will pass out on the spot, and you will wake up the morning after, and possibly find that your shoes have been nicked by a homeless guy. It's stuff like this that sets Bully apart from GTA.

The game features average graphics, although they obviously have been toned up a bit for the 360 remake. The sound however, is fantastic. Especially the music is memorable, with tunes that I kept humming long after I had shelved the game. It's a standard Rockstar affair though; average to bad graphics, but all other production values are extremely high.

If you are looking for a fun game with lots of stuff to do, Bully is the game for you. It has humor, fun gameplay and longevity. I took around 20 hours beating the game, though achievement hunting was responsible for about 7 of those hours. In short, if the sheer violence of GTA puts you off, but you are still looking for a similar experience, Bully: Scholarship Edition is an excellent choice.