A couple of years back, Rockstar released Bully for the Playstation 2. This year, the publisher has re-released the game for both the Wii and 360 with a few added classes, a handful of new missions, improved graphics for the current-gen, and new multiplayer mini-games. Bully: Scholarship Edition channels the same exuberance as the original PS2 title, but the port offers little to those who have already played through the game.

Four new classes (Biology, Music, Math and Geography) and 8 new missions add a bit more length to the game, but not much in the grand scheme of things. In short, if you’re looking for a full-blown sequel, or a new experience, to the original Bully title, you’re not going to find it in the Scholarship Edition.

With that said, the game remains the same innocent, mischievous title that it was on the PS2. You play as Jimmy Hopkins, a many-times-expelled youth who finds himself being dropped of at Bullworth Academy by his mother and new step-father. Bullworth Academy and its encompassing town, is a run-down, corrupt conglomeration of different aspects of social life. Most of your time is spent on campus managing relationships between the stereotypical cliques (nerds, preps, jocks and the like), going to class, and completing side tasks for others. Social divisions extend outside of the campus as well when you explore neighborhoods of the affluent, and streets of the blue-collared.

Right from the start players are introduced to a living community with distinct characters in teachers, merchants, students and citizenry; such is the Rockstar tradition and it continues to shine in the Bullworth universe. Carefully designed mannerisms, reactions and dialogue propagate throughout the game and make for an engrossing experience that none should miss. Really, it’s impossible to overly praise the world that has been created. There are a few times when dialogue will be repeated or strange reactions induced, but these occurrences are only episodic and don’t detract from the experience in the slightest.

Just like in the earlier PS2 title, the game is broken up into several chapters. Instead of an inconsequential timeline, time plays a large roll in breaking up the game. Like a real school, each day there are classes to attend and extra-curricular activities (jobs and side missions) to participate in. By 9 a.m. your first class starts, and by 1 a.m. Jimmy gets so tired he’ll pass out wherever he is.

In good open world etiquette, you have the option to do whatever you want, whenever you want to, and to whomever you like. However, there are implications, good and bad, to completing classes, interacting with people, and completing missions. While you are able to skip out on classes, truancy offers little reward as the each of the classes involves strangely enjoyable mini-games. Don’t expect much in the way of difficulty for both missions and classes however, as they rely on accessible gameplay and won’t require many, if any, retries.

Instead, the game revolves around telling the story of Jimmy’s introduction to Bullworth Academy and his experience therein. The title, Bully, can be a bit misleading as by completing missions and classes, you’ll open up more to the story which develops Jimmy as one of the lesser bad apples in Bullworth—not to mention not that bad of a guy in general.

Through your exploits you help corrupt teachers, drunkards and the different on-campus factions; all the while you make relationships with the rest of the student body by various interactions including taunts, wedgies, kisses and fights. In its execution, the game is less about missions than it is about the story. The gameplay may seem simplistic and easy, but the script really shines and is a great example of what studios are capable of doing.

Right down to the great musical score, Scholarship Edition is an exceptional title for both the Wii and 360. There’s not much difference between the two, except that you’re getting Wiimote functionality if you opt for Nintendo’s hardware. Also, for the completionists, although the actual gameplay is fairly easy, getting 100% of the game done is no quick task. Unfortunately, just as with all of its praise-worthy aspects, both ports suffer from a flawed technical experience.

Whether you’re wiggling the Wiimote around or mashing buttons on the 360 controller, both versions suffer from framerate problems and funky glitches. Like many other open-world titles, once you expand the number of objects on the screen, doing many different things, you’re bound to see a drop in framerate, objects popping in and out, and wonky animation glitches. Also, while the game has been ‘enhanced’ for the Wii and 360, there’s not much to ogle over in the graphics department. Objects tear in blocky-looking hands, and there’s just a general last-gen look to everything with a little bit of an upgrade.

Also lacking is the offline multiplayer mode. Two players can compete against each other in various class activities or in-game arcade games, but there’s little substance to make it an enjoyable multiplayer experience; and really, there’s no need for the game to have included such an aspect. While fun for a few tries, this isn’t a game—especially on the multiplayer-oriented Wii—where you’ll go out of your way to play with another person.

While the game may have received its fair share of objection by parents, educators and the community in general, Bully is really an innocent game that offers players an enjoyable experience and an entertaining story. There are a few technical problems which smudge the overall gameplay, but the game remains a classic. Those who played the game on the PS2 won’t find much to entice them back if they’re looking for a completely new experience, but for those who never got a chance the first time around, Bully: Scholarship Edition deserves your attention.

Gameplay: 8.0
Graphics: 7.5
Audio: 9.0
Lasting Appeal: 7.0
Overall: 8.0    

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