Nobody likes a bully, and nobody likes being bullied. But what do you do when confronted by a bully? Do you sit there and take it out of fear that standing up to the bully will lead to even more torment? Do you rat him out and hope for the best, knowing that it'll lead to a parking-lot brawl after school? Or do you stand up, fighting fire with fire?

Rockstar's latest game, appropriately titled Bully, puts you in that situation and gives you the tools to stand up to those bullies, knock them around with your fists, and rise to the top of a boarding school's social scene. The interesting story and unique setting set Bully apart from the pack, and the result is simply exciting. Jimmy Hopkins is a mischievous kid, but he isn't a monster. Bully opens with you, 15-year-old troublemaker Jimmy Hopkins, getting dumped off at a boarding school by your newly remarried mother and her rich husband. Your mother and her new husband intend to spend an entire year away on a cruise while you languish in what might as well be a teenage prison with slightly better-looking uniforms.

Bully (video game) Bully; Developer(s). He criticised it for 'time dilation, dodgy camera, and generic mini-games. The PlayStation 2 version of Bully received a.

Bullworth Academy is run by a clueless administration and a series of social cliques that are always scrapping. As the new kid thrown into the equation, you're quickly painted as an outcast. You're also befriended by another such outcast, a weird kid named Gary, who is apparently off his attention deficit disorder meds and has delusions of taking over the entire school. However, crazy Gary removes himself from the picture relatively early on, leaving you to fend for yourself against the school's different factions while attending classes, avoiding authority figures, and occasionally kissing girls.

While the gameplay is certainly strong, it's the setting and storyline that make Bully worthwhile. The characters are over-the-top caricatures of what you'd expect to see from jocks, principals, nerds, cheerleaders, and so on. Jimmy, however, is sort of the street-smart kid in the middle of it all. His dialogue is well written, portraying him as the one who can see through almost all of the personalities before him. That, plus the high school setting, is relatively untapped for this type of game.

The conflicts seem real and edgy without being gratuitous, and the game maintains a T-for-Teen rating, without making you feel as if it's pulling any punches. It's like a modern-day River City Ransom. Bully is an open-ended mission-based game, but don't mistake open-ended for a lack of structure. This is school, after all, and you're expected to attend two classes each day. You wake up at 8 a.m., have a morning class at 9 a.m. And an afternoon class at 1 p.m., and after that you're free to take on additional tasks until 11 p.m., which is curfew. Of course, rules were made to be broken, so as long as you dodge the prefects who roam the campus or the police who roam the nearby town, you can stay out and about until 2 a.m., at which point you'll automatically pass out from exhaustion and wake up at 8 a.m.

The next morning. The game time moves pretty quickly, but because there's no real deadline for getting things done, you can take missions and classes at your own pace. So the game does have a specific structure to it, but it never feels as if you don't have enough time to get things done. While it may be tempting to blow off all of your classes, staying in school has very real benefits. Each class has five minigame sessions, and succeeding at each task gives you a bonus. Doing well in gym class teaches you new fighting moves via wrestling and gives you increased accuracy by winning at dodge ball, which is a simple take on the game and serves as a bit of an homage to the classic '80s game Super Dodge Ball. English class gives you a set of letters, and you have to come up with as many words as you can by using those letters.

Passing English gives you increased verbal abilities, allowing you to beg off from beatings or apologize to authority figures to avoid getting busted. Chemistry class gives you access to a chem set in your bedroom that lets you make firecrackers and stink bombs. Shop class has you pressing buttons in a set sequence to build BMX bikes, which are then unlocked for your use. Art class is a Qix-style minigame (or, more accurately, it's maybe a little more like the seedy naked lady Qix clone, Gal's Panic) that has you claiming parts of a painting while avoiding erasers and other enemies.

Photography is the least essential of all classes because it just unlocks the ability to take photos and save them to your memory card. It also gives you a side mission as a yearbook photographer, with the goal of finding and snapping pictures of every student. Once you complete all five sessions of a class, you're no longer branded as a truant for skipping that class. So on top of getting some necessary upgrades, getting school out of the way early opens up your schedule for more missions. Bully is broken up into chapters. Each chapter has you butting heads with one of the school's different factions, so you'll be going on missions to trip up that faction. For example, the preppie kids prefer in-ring boxing to street fighting, so one mission will have you head to their boxing ring and take on some challengers.

In the segment where you take out the jocks, you work more closely with their nemeses, the nerds. You'll sneak into the girls' dorm to take naughty photos, steal the school mascot's uniform and use it to sneak around and pull off some nefarious deeds, and so on. Some missions are less about your current target, though. During the course of the game, you'll also help out some teachers, like the pervert gym teacher who asks you to go on a panty raid or the alcoholic English teacher who needs a little help cleaning up his act. None of the missions are lengthy or difficult, but the variety of the tasks you take on will keep you interested from start to finish.

Jimmy's abilities grow as you unlock new attacks and get new items. You interact with specific students by holding down the L1 button to lock onto them. From there, you can greet them positively or negatively. These social buttons are also used to hire bullies as bodyguards, to attempt to kiss girls, and so on. Of course, locking onto a target is also the best way to fight it.

You get a good number of weapons during the course of the game, and they're all appropriately adolescent, like a slingshot, firecrackers, a bottle rocket launcher, a potato cannon, itching powder, stink bombs, the occasional baseball bat, and your fists. Your fists and feet are your most potent weapons, and there are no guns, knives, or anything else that would just straight-up cause death in the game. Enemies can block your basic attacks, but you can learn overhand hits, low sweeps, and other moves that can get around an enemy's block. On top of that, you can also grapple enemies, taking them down and kneeing them in the groin or hitting them in the face some more.

The fighting system is really satisfying, though no single enemy is ever very tough. The enemies do, however, provide more of a challenge when you're outnumbered. Many of them drop life-restoring cola, so even when you're outnumbered, the odds never seem too overwhelming. During the course of the game, you'll impress girls, learn how to fight better, and get access to a digital camera. From a technical perspective, Bully won't immediately blow you away, but that's because of the age of the PlayStation 2 platform. Taking the platform into consideration, Bully looks great, with a lot of lifelike animation that makes the characters come alive during its cutscenes.

The frame rate isn't 100 percent solid, but it always maintains a playable speed, and things like camera control rarely get in the way. The voice work is fantastic. The characters are perfectly cast with voices that fit them, though you won't recognize many, if any, of the names behind those voices.

The same goes for the music. Rather than being filled with a bunch of instantly dated modern music that any teen might listen to, Bully has an original score that is thematically similar throughout, with plenty of harpsichord, all of which helps give the game a cinematic feel. The game has widescreen support and Dolby Pro-Logic II, which both work about as you'd expect. Bully isn't a very difficult game, and it's likely that you'll be able to get through the storyline and see its somewhat predictable conclusion in about 15 hours or so.

If you're a completist, there are plenty of hidden objects to collect, clothing items to purchase, and side missions (like bike races) to take on, and you can go back and do those things after finishing the main game. Overall, it's interesting from start to finish and most definitely well worth playing. Cracking Glass Sturry Station.

17 October 2006 • PlayStation 2 •: 17 October 2006 •: 25 October 2006 •: 27 October 2006 Scholarship Edition Wii, Xbox 360 •: 4 March 2008 •: 7 March 2008 Microsoft Windows • WW: 21 October 2008 Anniversary Edition Android, iOS • WW: 8 December 2016 Mode(s), (Wii, X360, Anniversary Edition) Bully is an developed by and published. It was released on 17 October 2006, for. A remastered version of the game, subtitled, was developed by and was released on 4 March 2008, for and, and on 21 October 2008, for.

Bully was re-released for available via digital download from on 22 March 2016. An updated version of the Scholarship Edition, titled Anniversary Edition, was developed by and was released for and on 8 December 2016. Set within the fictional town of Bullworth, the story follows a student and his efforts to rise through the ranks of the school system. The design lets the player freely roam Bullworth, which includes a number of towns.

The game is played from a and its world is navigated on-foot, skateboard, scooter, bicycle or by go-kart. Players control James 'Jimmy' Hopkins, a student who is involuntarily enrolled at Bullworth Academy. He discovers that the school is filled with bullies, and becomes determined to bring peace, ultimately becoming more respected among town groups. Jimmy is also expected to attend class, which is a main gameplay aspect. In Scholarship Edition, a two-player competitive multiplayer mode lets two players compete for the highest score in different classes. Despite initial controversy for its expected violence and homosexual content, Bully received positive reviews, with praise directed at the game's missions, narrative and characters.

The original version of Bully sold over 1.5 million copies, and received multiple year-end accolades. Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Gameplay [ ] Bully is an set in an environment and played from a.

The game's single-player mode lets the player control a high school student—teenage rebel James 'Jimmy' Hopkins. Throughout the story, Jimmy rises through the ranks of the school groups, which include the Bullies, Nerds, Preppies, Greasers, and Jock archetypes. Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. Outside of missions, the player can the game's open world, and have the ability to complete optional side missions. The world of Bully, named Bullworth, is separated between five areas: Bullworth Academy, Old Bullworth Vale, Bullworth Town, New Coventry, and the Blue Skies Industrial Area. At the beginning of the game, the player can only explore Bullworth Academy, with all other areas unlocking as the story progresses. The player can use attacks and weapons to fight enemies, and may run, jump, swim or use vehicles to navigate the game's world.

Bus stops are located in various locations around the world, allowing the player to quickly travel back to Bullworth Academy. Should the player take damage, their health meter can be fully regenerated using multiple techniques, such as drinking sodas. If the player break rules while playing, the game's authority figures may respond as indicated by a 'trouble' meter in the (HUD). On the meter, the displayed levels indicate the current level of severity (for example, at the maximum sixth level, efforts by all authority figures to incapacitate the player become very aggressive). Authority figures will search for the player who escape their line of sight; the trouble meter enters a cool-down mode and eventually recedes when the player has evaded the authority figures. When not performing missions, the player have the ability to attend classes; truanting a required class is a rule violation. Each class grants the player with a special ability upon passing; for example, English allows players to apologise to authority figures after violating rules, and Chemistry grants the player with the ability to create firecrackers, Stink Bombs, and Itching Powder.

The player can also be able to initiate romantic relationships with, acquiring the ability to give them gifts and kiss them, kissing also replenishes health. Synopsis [ ] Setting [ ].

Artwork of protagonist Jimmy Hopkins (left) and antagonist Gary Smith (right) Bully takes place at Bullworth Academy, a private in the region of the. After being expelled from seven previous schools, the game's protagonist, 15-year old James 'Jimmy' Hopkins, is sent there for a year while his mother and her new husband go on honeymoon. Surrounding the Academy is the town of Bullworth, which appears to exist in the same as the.

The school campus is designed in a style, similar to and colleges in the and New England, such as in. Plot [ ] After getting dropped off at Bullworth by his parents, Jimmy () meets with the school's principal, Dr. Crabblesnitch, who urges him to 'keep his nose clean'. He is soon befriended by senior Gary Smith () and freshman Peter 'Pete/Petey' Kowalski ().

Assuming the role of mentor, Gary introduces Jimmy to Bullworth's various 'cliques': the Bullies, Nerds, Preppies, Greasers, and Jocks. At first, the two boys work together to try and assert their dominance over the cliques. However, Gary, who appears to suffer from a, eventually betrays Jimmy by pitting him against Russell Northrop (Cody Melton), the leader of the Bullies, in an underground fight. Jimmy beats Russell and forces him to stop picking on his fellow students, to which the latter agrees. With this, Jimmy befriends Russell and earns the respect of the Bullies. Eager to expand his control, Jimmy turns his attention to the. Just as he begins to win them over, Gary tricks them into turning against him.

In response, Jimmy signs up for a boxing tournament hosted by the Preppies' leader, Derby Harrington (John Lavelle). Though he wins, the Preppies refuse to accept defeat and gang up on him, resulting in a massive fight that ends with Jimmy declaring himself the new leader. With the Preppies subdued, Jimmy then sets out to conquer their rivals, the Greasers.

Johnny Vincent (Rocco Rosanio), their leader, asks Jimmy to help him expose an between his girlfriend Lola Lombardi (Phoebe Strole), and Gord Vendome (Andrew Gehling), a member of the Preppies. The Preppies, angered by Jimmy's betrayal, abandon him, but he gradually wins back their trust. Gary manages to convince Johnny that Jimmy wants Lola, so he sets an ambush for him in a scrapyard. With Petey's help, Johnny is defeated and the Greasers recognize Jimmy as their superior. During this chapter, Jimmy also helps out a homeless man who pretend to be.

Determined to bring peace to Bullworth, Jimmy moves to take over the Jocks, who are considered to be the most powerful of the cliques. To beat them, Jimmy works to gain the trust of the Nerds and their leader, Earnest Jones (Jesse Tendler). After beating Earnest, Jimmy befriends him and enlists his help in ruining the Jocks' reputation. The Nerds get Jimmy to take inappropriate pictures of the school's head cheerleader, Mandy Wiles (Elena Franklin), and the pictures are spread around town, embarrassing Mandy.

Jimmy decides to cover the pictures around town. The Jocks attack the Nerds' hideout in retaliation, and Jimmy fights them off. After the drama dies down, the Nerds reveal a plan to sabotage the Jocks' big home game and Jimmy does all of the hard work, embarrassing not just the Jocks, but also the cheerleaders and the school mascot. Humiliated, the Jocks and their leader, Ted Thompson (Alex Cendese), challenge Jimmy to a fight in the school's football field, which they subsequently lose. With the cliques united under Jimmy's rule, peace is restored to Bullworth and Jimmy, who now basks in his newfound glory, is well respected by everyone. Secretly, Gary convinces the cliques to pressure Jimmy to vandalize Bullworth's town hall. Shortly afterwards, Gary orchestrates a series of dangerous and destructive pranks throughout the school and blames them on Jimmy's lack of leadership.

These events ruin Jimmy's reputation in the eyes of the cliques, and he gradually loses their respect. The final straw comes when Gary falsely informs Crabblesnitch of Jimmy's alleged crimes, triggering immediate expulsion from Bullworth. Jimmy accepts defeat, but Petey urges him to find the true culprits behind the pranks.

This leads him to the ', a group of former Bullworth students who have turned to Gary for revenge against the school. One of them, Zoe Taylor (Molly Fox), agrees to help him find their leader, Edgar Munsen (Jan Milewicz). With Russell distracting the police and Zoe keeping the other Townies occupied, Jimmy sneaks into their hideout and confronts Edgar. After beating him, he explains Gary's deception. Zoe then arrives with news that Gary and his followers have taken Crabblesnitch hostage, sparking a full-blown war between the cliques. The Townies and Russell then help Jimmy neutralize the clique leaders, giving him an opening to enter the main building and chase Gary to the roof.

Gary taunts Jimmy, claiming that he will win no matter what. Jimmy tackles him over the side and the two end up falling through the roof of Crabblesnitch's office. Once freed, he has Gary expelled and then fires Burton, a gym teacher who got Zoe expelled after she accused him of sexually harassing her. He allows Jimmy and Zoe to return to Bullworth, and appoints Petey as head boy, replacing Gary. As his friends and allies cheer on, Jimmy shares a kiss with Zoe. Development [ ] Rockstar announced Bully on May 2005 for the PlayStation 2 and with an original expected release date of October 2005. Early information released by Take-Two Interactive seemed to indicate that the player would be taking the role of a bully, and screenshots printed in showed the player-controlled administering a ' and throwing a punch at another student.

However, the tone of the final game was different, with the player in the role of a problem student who stood up to and fought back against bullies, in effect, bullying on behalf of the victims, or in self-defense. The version of the game uses an advanced engine through. Rockstar Vancouver also decided to make every student in the school have a unique appearance and personality. When developing the characters, the team aimed at recreating the state of being a child, and making it enjoyable.

Parallels were made between Jimmy and 's. Jimmy and Holden share a background of a difficult homelife and being thrown out of multiple private schools. Though the pompous Dr. Crabblesnitch is originally introduced as the main nemesis, this role is later replaced by Gary Smith, who initially befriends Jimmy. Gary is described as a.

He admits that he suffers from and is also a, as he considers himself smarter and better than everyone, and wants to run the school. The originally announced Xbox version was silently cancelled during development. [ ] Scholarship Edition [ ] On 19 July 2007, Rockstar announced that a remaster would be released for the and, subtitled Scholarship Edition., then called Mad Doc Software, led development with the Xbox 360 version while ported it to the Wii. The Wii and Xbox 360 versions were released on 4 March 2008. A port was later developed by Rockstar New England and released on 21 October 2008. The game features exclusive content which is unavailable in the original version, including new missions, characters, school classes, and unlockable items and clothing.

Some small script changes have been made, and the highly compressed voice files of the original have been replaced with higher-quality versions. The random NPCs also have more lines. In addition, single system two-player competitive multiplayer minigames have also been added, along with for the Xbox 360 version and motion and pointer controls for the Wii version. All ports of the Scholarship Edition use the game engine, rather than, which was used for the original version. Reception [ ] Critical response [ ] Bully reception Aggregate score Aggregator Score 87/100 Review scores Publication Score A+ 8.7/10 8.9/10 Bully received 'generally favorable' reviews from critics, according to. As of 12 March 2008, the PlayStation 2 version of Bully had sold 1.5 million copies according to. 's Daniel Wilks commends the game for its 'clever script, some novel missions, and well constructed characters'.

However, he criticised it for 'time dilation, dodgy camera, and generic mini-games'. • Richardson, Ben (1 September 2006)...

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He's a fascinating character, definitely, and Bullworth is a fascinating place, so obviously we would love to explore, but we have no plans right now for it. • Yin-Poole, Wesley (18 November 2011)..

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