Well, I am sitting or more so laying at home beginning my third week of being laid up after knee surgery and was hoping to review Spiderman 3 for Xbox 360 when the dreaded Red Rings of Death. Needless to say I am completely bummed out. The Xbox 360 was my entertainment life. It was my gaming machine of choice and my HD-DVD player. Well the bright side to this is two fold, one I can now upgrade to the Elite with HDMI support thanks to Best Buy’s great service plan, and second it gave the opportunity to play my Sony PS 2 so more and I am glad I did. The game I have been played for the past week is Bully. Bully is created by Rockstar, the company that gave us the revolutionary Grand Theft Auto series. This game certainly does not disappoint. I am only 25% done with the game and I have being playing it at least 3 or 4 hours a day. I find it virtually impossible to put done the controller. (Which, by the way, is my recently acquired Logitech wireless. If you do not own one and still play your Sony PS 2. BUY IT. It is an incredible controller)
Back to the game, Bully has you start off as Jimmy, a troubled youth who has been kicked every school, which brings him to Bullworth Academy. As the new kid at Bullworth, Jimmy is already not very well liked. So in order to make it at his new school, Jimmy has to start earning other’s respect or have others live in fear of him. Jimmy does this by pulling pranks, beating up anyone he likes from the nerds to jocks to the greasers. Jimmy also gets to find love in the game by impressing some of the girls and wooing them with gifts, but don’t pick on the girls or the prefects will bust you and they are eager to do it. Be careful around the prefects they are just itching to catch you doing anything wrong, whether you are committing violence, cutting class, or violating the Bullworth dress code.
Speaking of cutting class, since the game is open ended, you might decide to constantly cut class, but you would do yourself some good if you attend classes every now and then. Classes consist of 5 minigames; Chemistry, Gym, Shop, English, and Art. Passing each of these classes provide you with upgrades, for which this game has lots of. Chemistry upgrades you to allowing you create bully weapons like stink bombs and firecrackers with you chemistry set. Gym class allows you to learn more bully moves for the fights you pick or have started with you. Shop allows you to build bikes for your use. English strengths your verbal skills, allowing you to talk your way out of trouble. Lastly, Art class leads to photography and that is important because one of your side missions is to be a yearbook photographer and take a photo of every student. After completing your classes, you will no longer be busted for cutting class, allowing you to focus on what seems to be an endless series of missions, which will keep you entertained and occupied for hours upon hours.
If you still own a PS2 and need to relive your school days or get even with the types that did you wrong back in the day, Bully is the game for you and should be part of your video game curriculum. Remember to always, try before you buy.
