Rockstar Games takes us back to school with their release of Bully.  From the makers of the Grand Theft Auto series, Rockstar uses their expertise in free-roaming, mission-based gameplay to bring us a GTA style experience set in and around a private school. With its solid storyline and quirky characters, backed by some expressive voice acting, Bully is guaranteed to entertain its audience in between other Rockstar releases.

The game lets you take control of Jimmy Hopkins, the new kid with a history of graffiti, violence, and disrespect.  The first portion of the game is essentially a story driven tutorial of the controls.  I found that this allowed me to jump right into the game without even reading the instruction manual. Unfortunately, the controls were a little finicky for my taste.  Once I got used to them, though, I had no problem exploring the school grounds, beating up the student body for rep, hitting on girls for health, or collecting trading cards for geeks. 

Bully's gameplay is nothing short of engaging. At night, I was constantly saying to myself, "just one more mission," when I should have already been asleep.  And even if I wasn't trying to complete my current mission, I was participating in bike races, spending time at the carnival, or just shopping at the various businesses that the adjacent town has to offer.  This original release of Bully provides absolutely no multiplayer options to speak of, but I would think that a second player mode might detract from the already well laid out solo storyline. The later versions on Xbox 360 and Wii actually contain some multiplayer mini-games, but Rockstar was able to keep the original story intact. 

One of the most entertaining elements of Bully are the classroom mini-games.  I never thought I would have so much fun doing my schoolwork.  Jimmy must go to class on time in order to advance his skills, and sometimes the story.  His schedule contains English, Shop, Art, Chemistry, Gym, and Photography.  The mini-game for English is a word jumble, which definitely wins the award for the hardest albeit most rewarding challenge of all the classes.  I actually felt some personal accomplishment.  Graduating from each class will unlock techniques or items for Jimmy.  Photography, in particular, bestows upon you a camera which can be used to take a photo of each member of the student body for the yearbook.

The visuals are perfect for a game based around a school.  There's a lot of detail put into the most commonly visited areas of Bullworth Academy.  From the messy dorm rooms to the later visited football field, the game made me feel like I was back in high school trying to make the grade.  Rockstar also shells out plenty of options in regards to the outfits Jimmy is allowed to buy with his hard earned cash.  Unfortunately, you have to wear your uniform on school grounds to keep the prefects off your back.  This would be an easy task if it weren't for the fact that you also have to simultaneously appease the nerds, jocks, preps, greasers, bullies, and townies.  Phew, there are so many cliques to run errands for, and so many revisited areas, that you will have no problem memorizing the layout of the academy.  And if you run into trouble, there is always a handy GTA looking map at your disposal.

Deserving of its own paragraph, the relationships in Bully are what the game is all about.  Apart from running errands, Jimmy has the option of flirting with the girls of each clique.  He can give them flowers and candy purchased at the local shops, and they will give him a smooch for his gratitude.  As your relationship builds, the smooching becomes more of a make-out session which is best done in private.  If a girl from another clique catches you cheating, you might have a lot of explaining to do.  Speaking of explaining to do, Rockstar might have something to say about the ability to court a male member of the student body along with the girls.  Jimmy has the same option of locking lips with a certain guy as he does with all of the girls.

The graphics are very well done as the game progress through each season, and each area of the city.  You can constantly hear the voices and sound effects of other students off in the distance.  The game has a real sense of atmosphere when there are no loading times between areas, and a nearby jock can be heard pounding on a geek.  On a side note, the loading times between cut-scenes are hefty, but I find that this happens with most Playstation 2 games.  Once you get past the wait, you'll find that the videos are full of personality portrayed through both the animation and the voice acting.  Even though the entire game is full of great audio, you are allowed the option of displaying subtitles during cut-scenes.

Simultaneously released on Xbox, Bully was also recently updated for the Wii and Xbox 360 consoles under the title Bully: Scholarship Edition. Some extra missions were added along with a few multiplayer mini-games and new classes to try out such as a lesson in dissection a la Trauma Center.  As of June 2008, Bully is listed as $19.99CDN which is a more than fair price for this 14+ hour game.  Even when the story concludes, the game is only 70% complete.  You are still allowed to roam around on your skateboard or bicycle in order to climb your way to 100%.  Or, you can just beat on random school chums or civilians.  The choice is yours.