Sometimes it can be seen that when controversy follows a video game, it may give an artificial boost to the games sales. Unfortunately, despite the controversy and quite a good critical reception, Canis Canem Edit on the PS2 was something of an under performer at the checkout. Almost a year and a half after the original release, the original name has been reinstated for PAL territories as Bully makes a return on the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360, in the form of Bully: Scholarship Edition.
As you did on the PS2, you take up the role of Jimmy Hopkins. He’s a fifteen-year-old boy who has been “dumped” at Bullworth Academy, one of the roughest schools in the country, by a mother who is off on her fifth honeymoon. After seven previous expulsions, to say that young Jimmy’s upbringing has been dysfunctional would be putting it lightly. Misunderstood and maligned, Jimmy is immediately siphoned into being an outcast. Your task from here on in is to guide Jimmy through his adventure, as he sticks it everyone that’s trying to put him down. As far as references within the game go, Bully touches on almost every stereotype of school life (as seen on TV and cinemas) and it makes for a unique, interesting and entertaining story.
Play this game, or feel Jimmy's wrath.
Our PS2 review provides extensive coverage of the original game, including most of the specifics, so here we’ll be concentrating more on the differences that you’ll find in Bully: Scholarship Edition. Realistically speaking, there aren’t that many of them. Obviously, the Wii version has the obligatory motion controls but otherwise, it seems that this repackaging is aimed at those who haven’t yet played the game. If you’ve played the PS2 game extensively, there’s little reason come back and do it again. However, chances are that most Wii and 360 owners haven’t, so they’ll be in for an experience that’s unavailable anywhere else.
There probably isn’t another developer other then Rockstar who are audacious enough to pursue such confronting material, but at the same time have the ability to make gameplay speak as loud as the content. Bully: Scholarship Edition mixes the elements of past Rockstar games, including Grand Theft Auto and The Warriors, as well as a homage to many old school classics. The game isn’t as open-ended as the aforementioned gaming behemoth, and somewhat smaller and easier, but Bully offers something different.
As you’ll find mentioned in our PS2 review, the structure of the game is much more regimented then what you’ll normally find in an open-ended title. Jimmy’s day goes from 8am till 2am, where you need to attend ‘class’ from 9am till 11:30am then 1pm till 3:30pm. You are otherwise free to explore the school and later on, the surrounding town and you can go to class at anytime during the given interval, though you’ll be punished if you’re caught going to class late. Missions are found by following the icon on the mini-map, and these range from escorting nerds to the library, to non-violently eliminating the cinema queue so that a girl can get good seats, to hiding a drunken teacher's liquor stash and sabotaging a football match. Through out the course of the five chapters in Bully, you’ll also make unique use of the relationships that Jimmy will have with various groups and individuals. You’re sure to find a number of characters in Bully that will remind you of kids from your school.
Bullworth Trauma Centre.
Adding to the initial six classes: English, Chemistry, Art, Photography, Shop and Gym, you’ve now got Biology, Music, Geography and Maths. Each of the classes are essentially based off classic mini-games, and each is now controlled with the Wii-remote and nunchuck combo. Biology plays a little bit like Trauma Centre, while Music is a rather simple rendition of Guitar Hero (Cowbell Hero anyone?). For the games that do use the motion controls, they work very proficiently. The four new classes have been well implemented, but they don’t give any extrinsic benefits like the original classes. The rewards are mainly costume based, rather than gameplay enhancements such as the acquisition of stinkbombs through Chemistry or better negotiation skills from English.
The same can be applied to the 8 new missions that have been added to the game. They blend in quite well with the multitude of original missions, though most are based at a particular point in the game. The Wii controls work fairly well in Bully: Scholarship Edition, though we wouldn’t say that the scheme makes it any easier on people who don’t play a lot of video games. Combat is where it tends to be at it’s patchiest, namely because it sometimes has difficulty recognising combos. You’ll often do one and get another instead, though given the game’s difficulty, this is only an issue when ‘training’. The quick motions that you use to perform humiliations or other spontaneously prompted actions manage to work extremely well. The pointer works well with either the slingshot or the camera, though it can be hard to keep centered.
The other main addition to the game has been that of some basic multiplayer. There are ten mini-games in total, though you can play competitively in lots of 3, 6 and 9 to determine an overall winner. Most of the games are based on classes, with shop and gym being omitted, while there are a couple of the mini-games from the main adventure as well. A couple of classes such as photography have been re-jigged to be more suitable or provide competitive opportunities but otherwise, you’re going through the same games. They’re quite enjoyable, so we were happy to do so.
Now now children, everyone will get to hit the pink bunny.
We had a lot of fun with Bully: Scholarship Edition and we appreciated the unique nature of the game as well as the humour and references that were to be found. Not everyone will take to the regimented style, but we were disappointed that some outstanding issues haven’t been fixed from the PS2 game. This is primarily due to the amount of backtracking and mission repetition. Often, a mission will send you off quite far, and if you fail, you have to go all the way back to the beginning to start again. It’s a shame that no improvements have been made to any of these aspects over the last year and a bit. Granted, such improvements may have required a major overhaul of the game. There were reports of bugs in the game, but apart from minor open-world glitches, we encountered nothing major in the Wii version.
Graphically, Bully: Scholarship Edition is a minor but genuine improvement over the PS2 game. The Wii game boasts sharper textures, less aliasing, a smoother frame rate and more saturated and realistic look. The character models are somewhat sharper as well. The PAL version has the same annoying borders as the PS2 version did but it’s nothing major. The load times tended to be a bit more consistent on the Wii but not a drastic improvement. The audio presentation is identical to what it was on the PS2. While overall it’s good, there are times when you’re listening to dialogue or voicing that is corny beyond ridiculous, or some random comments that start to take away from the experience. Generally speaking though, the output of audio quality was slightly better on the PS2.
Bully: Scholarship Edition for both the Wii and Xbox 360 is for players who never got around to the original game on the PS2, without the uninformed media fuss. If you have already played through the game, there’s little reason for you to come back. The Wii version is slightly better looking and has motion controls that are reasonably well implemented, as is the extra content. That’s on top of the already present unique blend of open-ended gaming and schoolyard shenanigans. So while the game hasn’t been explicitly improved over the last year and a bit, it’s definitely worth checking out, as there isn’t a single game on either system that comes close to offering what Bully: Scholarship Edition does. Not to mention, it's nicely priced as well.
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