GENRE
	Action Adventure
	DEVELOPER
	Rockstar Vancouver
	PUBLISHER
	Rockstar Games
	NUMBER OF PLAYERS
	1-2
	WI-FI ENHANCED
	No
	DS COMPATIBLE
	No
	BUY NOW AT

High school. This may spark some of the fondest memories of your life -- dances, parties, sporting events, friends, girlfriends and irresponsibility. But these highs also hide an undercurrent of bad experiences, such as the rumors, bullies, stereotypes and growing pains. Bully: Scholarship Edition delves deeper into this robust educational world by thrusting gamers into the role of troublemaker Jimmy Hopkins to explore the school hallways of Bullworth Academy. While the game may have arrived on PS2 over a year ago, this edition shows off four new classes, slightly updated visuals and motion controls to entice Wii owners.

visuals

Easily, this is the weakest aspect of Bully: Scholarship Edition. The game showcases outdated visuals that contain jaggies on most character models, along with mitts instead of hands. In addition, sandbox games are notorious for pop-up issues and this game follows the trend. Players will notice trees and people appear out of nowhere, even by just rotating the camera. These flaws become even more annoying because of the load times for entering any building. While loading is not detrimental to the overall experience, it still puts a hindrance on the flow of the game. Given that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix streamed the entire school on Wii, so why not Bully?

However, these visual deficiencies also contain more than a few bright spots. As seasons change, the environment adapts well by showcasing snow particle effects or leaves falling from trees. For Wii owners, the cutscenes demonstrate some of the best cinematics and production values of almost any third-party title. Each cutscene helps illuminate Jimmy’s personality or a NPC, such as the lunch lady, and creates a truly captivating storyline.

audio

The cinematics would not deliver without the talented and enthralling voice-overs. The characters come to life because of the gigantic amount of voice work recorded for the title. Jimmy comes across as cocky and sarcastic as well as passionate and caring. The lunch lady sounds raspy and old, with a skewed sense of humor. The audio highlights these characteristics and helps push gamers further into Bullworth Academy because text sometimes has trouble denoting tone, voice level and even sarcasm.

The soundtrack also contains high production value, with background music adapting to gameplay. For instance, the opening theme of the title plays when you jump onto a bicycle to ride around town. This song also sounds eerily familiar to the theme of Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, which is a comical nod to a classic. Along with the background music, the added elements of cars honking their horns as you cut them off or people shouting hello across the academy create a living and breathing virtual world.

gameplay

Bully is a sandbox game that focuses on a mission-based storyline with a huge slew of side tasks to complete for fun. Similar to Grand Theft Auto, this game differentiates itself by using a smaller scale setting, detail in each NPC, and a less serious and more playful storyline. The smaller setting makes the game more easily manageable, as games like San Andreas can feel overwhelming. In addition, the over-the-top personalities you will encounter as Jimmy play well into the clique feature of the game. Instead of gangs, Jimmy must deal with a variety of high school groups: townies, jocks, nerds, etc. The storyline and gameplay will make you cooperate or fight among each group, which affects your likeness with each crowd. For instance, one mission will have Jimmy sabotaging a big football game to payback the jocks for bullying the nerds. This will negatively affect your relationship with the jocks, which will make them aggressive toward you around school. The nerds, however, will be more receptive of your presence in their dorms or the library. This type of mission also demonstrates that players will be embarking on a more lighthearted plotline from Rockstar.

The main plotline contains a wide variety of over 70 missions to complete. These missions may be as simple as spray-painting a few buildings to multi-task assignments like finding a NPC and escorting them back home. The most entertaining missions have Jimmy escaping the police by using a bike or protecting a nerd’s presidential speech by sniping with a slingshot. These action elements keep you moving and feature solid game mechanics.

However, the stealth missions can prove to be annoying. Players must use the map to see an enemy’s cone of vision a la Metal Gear Solid. This cone of vision can be bigger than it appears on the map and lead to a couple of frustrating busts. In addition, the biggest shortcoming to any mission is failing over halfway through. No one wants to constantly replay a mission over and over to keep failing at the end. Finally, the so-called "boss battles" feel somewhat anemic and boil down to finding one weakness and capitalizing on it.

Along with missions, players must choose to attend class at Bullworth Academy. Classes range from biology to art, with disciplinarians waiting to bust you for skipping class. This element creates a trouble meter, which hugs the map in the corner of the screen. If Jimmy punches a girl or breaks into a locker, school officials or even the police will seek after Jimmy. To avoid punishment, players can hide in trash cans, lockers and even bathrooms to avoid the authorities. If you do choose to follow the rules, classes range from entertaining to downright boring. Biology, a newly added class, strikes a very similar feeling to Trauma Center by using IR controls to dissect animals, which is fun. On the other hand, Chemistry lazily mapped motion controls to former button presses to create a boring class where you basically match the onscreen prompts.

Like the classes, the implementation of the Wii controls contains strengths and weaknesses. The IR pointing adds precise and pinpoint accuracy to shooting with a slingshot or bottle rocket launcher. The uses in class prove to be more immersive. The fighting mechanics also rely on the remote and nunchuk, each part acting as an arm to punch. This works fairly well, except the combos were not adequately adapted to the motion controls. For example, the timing to perform a leg sweep obviously would be easy with button presses. However, this move becomes aggravating when you have to figure out the right timing for each punch and when to initiate the movements of your arms.

Overall, there’s a lot of game here, with the main quest taking over 10 – 12 hours. The side quests and tasks, such as mowing lawns or delivering papers, help beef up this aspect even further. Even though a few of the motion controls can prove frustrating, these elements are not integral to fighting and may be avoided. The other uses, such as aiming, really do make the experience better. In addition, elements such as kissing girls for health boosts or giving virtual wedgies to nerds never gets old.

multiplayer

Along with the new classes and controls, Bully: Scholarship Edition also proffers a two-player mode. This aspect of the game allows for two people to compete in class competitions to see who can dissect a frog faster. The multiplayer is an afterthought, and gamers will only check it out for a few minutes.

overall

Bully: Scholarship Edition is the best sandbox title available on Wii. The sheer number of missions, side tasks and abilities will keep gamers busy for hours upon hours. While the graphics do showcase flaws like jaggies and long load times, the cinematics pack a punch each time with gorgeous cinematography. The Wii controls do add a level of immersion, especially the IR pointing, but a few timing issues for fighting combos are frustrating. For people who passed on Bully initially, this a prime package to pick up. The added features, however, do not add enough to validate a second purchase. Ultimately, like Jimmy, the rough edges of the game smooth out over time to reveal a gem of a title with great personality.

8.1/10