Hype Muffin
The game mixes a lot of humor within the pretty interesting setting of a corrupt boarding school. Jimmy Hopkins makes a great anti-hero, thrust into the midst of a pretty horrifying environment and forced to eat or be eaten. Each chapter focuses upon a different click within the school (bullies, nerds, jocks, preppies) and requires Jimmy to help them but ultimately beat them down into submission, thereby earning their respect and granting him more power over the school. The characterizations are great, from corrupt teachers to delusional rich kids, every person in the game has a lot of dark humor around them, keeping things light and entertaining. Rockstar did a great job of creating the often ridiculous atmosphere of school and the dream of owning it all in the palm of your hand.
Gameplay is sandbox style, allowing the player to explore a pretty large school and surrounding town, taking missions or attending classes to earn unlockables or just plain cash. In the midst of this story missions drive the main plot, but never feel out of place or cumbersome to the overall mood of the game. The missions offer a lot of great variety, and the classes fit their subject: English is a word scramble, biology has you dissecting small creatures, etc. The only one out of place is Art, which plays like the game Qix, but still fun nevertheless. There's always something to do, for the plot or just for fun, so the appeal does not wear out quickly. The biggest annoyance of the game is the size of it; taking the time to ride your bicycle everywhere sometimes feels like it takes forever.
There is a lot of good integration of Wii controls into the game, such as punching, moving objects in class, and aiming with weapons. However, switching from 3rd person view to 1st in order to aim is jarring and takes some time until the player is able to transition smoothly. Other camera issues pop up, but nothing too bad; the player is given limited control of the camera angle. Sometimes the button layout feels a little awkward, though, and most tedious is the most necessary action, rapidly tapping A in order to run. Even on skateboard or bicycle, tapping A is the only way to move quickly, and with the size of the game, it becomes a necessary evil.
The graphics may not be pushing any visual boundaries, but sometimes it's nice to see a game establish a visual style and maintain it throughout the game, in cutscenes and gameplay alike. Even without doing anything overly showy, Rockstar gets a lot of expression and detail out of the graphics, leading to plenty of subtle jokes that are always fun to discover. The music has some interesting variety depending on the scene, but unfortunately, the same scene will always have the same music. For example, whenever riding a bicycle, the same music plays, making it extremely repetitive and annoying when trying to ride anywhere around the large town.
The game offers so many missions, even outside of the main plot missions, that there's sure to be something to really capture the player's attention and hopefully elicit a chuckle. All the mission variety means plenty of gameplay time; added on top of the several classes, each of which has five sessions, and the many hidden bonuses throughout the game, and Bully will take you a good amount of time. If going through missions and classes doesn't appeal, it's also a lot of fun to just explore the school campus and surrounding town. While this means plenty of game time, there isn't a lot of replay incentive.
Bully: Scholarship Edition is not your conventional adventure game. The characters aren't always likable, the protagonist is certainly not heroic, and the tongue-in-cheek style of the entire game makes a truly amusing and unique game. Gamers looking for a laugh as well as a fairly good sized adventure need look no farther.
8.5/10
