Well everyone, it’s official: I am done my course in college. Yes, after 7 years in elementary school, 5 years in high school and 2 years in college (plus a couple of university classes one year), I am done my education process for now. If I ever wanted to experience it again though, I can always play a video game about going to school. How can a game like that work you ask? Well developers Rockstar games took the same approach to it they did with Grand Theft Auto and real life: give people the chance to do things they know they shouldn’t. So they decided they’d give everyone one the chance to be the tough guy on campus in a game called Bully: Scholarship Edition for the Wii. Now I’m going to address this right away: yes this is a Wii port and no I haven’t the original game. From my research, the only differences I can find are a few extra classes and Wii-motion controls which I’m not planning on talking about, so let’s say that this review is also applicable to the original game.
With a game title like “Bully”, I was honestly not expecting much of a story going in, but I was actually surprised at where they went with this game. You play as Jimmy Hopkins, a trouble maker son whose mother is going away on a yearlong honeymoon, so she left him in the care of Bullworth Academy. Upon arriving there, he’s quick to make a few enemies, such as a principal of the school and a few of the clicks around campus. So Jimmy sees one goal in mind; make the geeks, preps, greasers, jocks and everyone else see that he should be respected or else. And that’s pretty much all I’m going to say, because for a plot that’s basically “rule the school”, the road to accomplish this sees some interesting twists. I was actually interested to see where the game was going with it.
The reason I got this game was because of the Nintendo Power article. It promised freedom and what you’d do would affect where you go. That was the biggest lie about this game: you’re on a prechosen path. I was hoping that you kind of had a meter to which click you most fit into, and that determined which mission you could do, but nope, the “points” they have for it don’t really serve as anything except to put a number on something you can’t really measure. Here’s my best example of how the freedom is an illusion: you can “chose” not to go to class. But, if you don’t, the hall monitor, police officers and such will try to make you every time you skip one. Furthermore, some of the missions are unavailable during class time and if you go to class, you get bonuses. It’s like playing Old Maid against a four year old: it’ll stick out the old maid card and block you from taking the other cards when you go to pick, so might as well take it just to make him happy.
The missions (and I’m counting classes in the mission category) are definitely the highlight of the game. Since you’re on the prechosen path, it seems that the makers of the game put a little extra effort to give you variety in what you’re asked to do: you got stealth missions, shooting missions, flat out fighting, collection and even ones with odd skills, like photography. I do want to quickly mention the side mission though, that add extra playtime to the game, but I don’t think much more. All of them pretty fun, but sometimes the reason you’re doing it is questionable, like this time I found myself in the girls dorm collecting their underwear for a teacher. I guess doing things you know are wrong is part of the whole allure of the game.
I think this game accomplished what it probably set out to do: supply a tamer GTA based on the relatable school setting (since pretty much everyone went to school). I was disappointed in the lack of freedom, but I think that was more Nintendo Power’s fault, so I’m not holding it against the game. I enjoyed the variety of the missions and the story, though some of the control elements were questionable (constantly pressing A to peddle was annoying). All and all, it’s pretty fun for a realistic game, so here’s what I say: you will probably enjoy this game if you also like Grand Theft Auto AND The Sims. However, I want to make it clear that word “and” in that sentence is probably not as important as the word “like”. I give Bully: Scholarship Edition for the Wii 7.5 Levels out of 10.
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