This would go a little way to explaining why Bully now finds itself with impending releases on the Wii and Xbox 360, as well as returning to its original name. Bully: Scholarship Edition, as it will now be known, is set for a March release, and Rockstar recently invited us to have a look at the new versions. We've actually had quite extensive coverage of the PS2 title, so for more exhaustive specifics on the game itself, you can check out what we've already written.
Thankfully, failing Chemistry won't end the game (Wii)
The reason for this is that at its core, Bully on the Wii and Xbox 360 are the same game as the PS2 version. This is a good move, because it's not as if there are a lot of similar games on either system and Bully happened to contain a throughouly unique and enjoyable story line and some varied gameplay to boot. Bully tells the story of Jimmy Hopkins, a deliquent juvenille dumped at a boarding school, Bullworth. Here he's pipped against the school authorites and all the various cliques and gangs with the school's hallways.
It's up to Jimmy to make the best of various situations and get through them in ways that would seem familiar to anyone who has watched any teen drama or high-school flick from the last 20-30 years. We don't want to give too much away for those who haven't played, but it's certainly a hoot. At the same time, it has been obviously inspired by the mechanics from previous Rockstar titles, including GTA and The Warriors. It even manages to poke fun at them. However, being a game based in a school you're forced to follow a more regimented schedule than in other open-ended games. You need to attend classes at particular times, but outside of this, it's up to you what you do.
Accident waiting to happen (Xbox 360)
Both the Wii and Xbox 360 versions will have a number of additional classes over the PS2 game. These include biology, music, math and geography. Now before you wince at the thought of classes, you should know that they're merely a set of reasonably entertaining mini-games. Furthermore, players will be able to partake in some basic multiplayer action with these mini-games. To help fit these classes in, there have been a number of new missions added into the game, each with their own cut-scenes fit into the appropriate context. Given the GTA-esque mission structure, this is hardly unfathomable. From an aesthetic perspective, the game will contain more costumes and whatnot, and we happened to hear a few new phrases being spouted in the corridors.
The Wii version is being taken care of in-house by the original developer. Visually, it's fairly similar to the PS2 game, but with higher resolution textures and better lighting effects. In truth, the visuals manage to hold up very well and looked very good on a high definition setup. Furthermore, a lot of the mini-games have been re-jigged to fit the Wii controls, and the developers have managed to fit in some camera control. Combat is also now controlled by motioning the Wii-mote and Nunchuck, as are the finishing 'humiliations'. They seem to have been fit into the game in a non-intrusive way as well.
You'll still be chased at the beginning of the game (Xbox 360)
The Xbox 360 version has been outsourced to Mad Doc and a lot of the game's visuals have been rebuilt for the new system. According to Rockstar, the build that we saw was pre-Christmas so it wasn't surprising that a final clean-up was in order. That didn't take away from the obvious leap, though the original style is still well intact. Apart from the above mentioned additions and the HD upgrade, the core experience is very similar. Of course, the Xbox 360 version will have achievements and online leaderboards for the mini-games.
So while Bully: Scholarship Edition isn't radically different from the original PS2 release, it didn't need to be. If anything, people are more likely to now concentrate on the the game itself, rather than the controversy surrounding the original release. And so they should. After all, we know that Bully: Scholarship Edition is wrapped in a great story and varied gameplay. Some may not be too fond of the the regimented style, but it's one of those things that might be worth getting through for the good stuff. If you missed the original, you've now got two lower-priced options to get acquainted with Jimmy, when Bulworth Academy resumes classes in March.
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