I said it before and I will say it again here and probably again in the future, but I amor it when Rockstar does other stuff than GTA. It usually feels mais experimental and always feels like it pays off. And one of my favorito of their mais experimental games is, oddly enough, their T rated game, Bully.
Bully follows Jimmy Hopkins, a good kid in a bad place, as he is dropped off at Bullworth Academy, possibly the worst school in the country where students are broken up into groups and where strict rules and cruel bullies are a common occurrence. One such bully, Gary, has it out for Jimmy and tries to make him look bad all across the school. But Jimmy isn’t one to take that kind of stuff, and so, with the help of other students, does what he can to overthrow the bullies rule over the school to bring some sort of peace to the campus. Let me tell you, this game feels a whole lot like high school… minus the extreme bullying. Just slight. The feeling of having to get to your classes on time, the open ended grounds all around you, and just the feeling of seeing familiar faces every time you walk to your seguinte class or are on your way home, or in this games case, the dorm rooms. It just gives me that nostalgic feel of going to school. Weather that is a good feel or not, I don’t know, but I find it charming for Bully. You got a lot of classes to go to, which are broken up into minigames, such as dissecting in Biology, scrambling letters in English, doing wrestling moves in Gym, and much mais than that. You also get the chance of unlocking the town once you are done, and this is when the game really hits close to início for me. Growing up in a small town where everyone knows your name, it felt really nice to ride a bike around the town and listening to that charming little soundtrack… Only to get hit with a firecracker por a bully in just two seconds. The world is a lot of fun to explore, allowing you to procurar for gnomes to destroy, cards to collect, rubber bands too, I guess. Each one having their own rewards. Some are just cash, and the gnomes just give you a suit, but collecting the rubber bands unlocks the rubber band ball, which if used in doors, get ready for some chaos. And you can also be a bully yourself, if you want. I would never condone bullying… That being said, sounding the alarm in the boys dorm after setting up a marble trap makes up for a fuck ton of fun. The game’s combat is also a lot of fun. Rockstar’s hand to hand combat has never been their strongest point, but Bully really gives you a lot. Aside from punches, you got kicks, leg swipes, spears, and all sorts of wrestling moves. All that mixes with insane weaponry like firecrackers, marbles, stink bombs, and a potato launcher make for something I don’t think schools would allow. And Bully was one of the few games I not only 100% but also unlocked every achievement for on the Xbox 360. And the reward is pretty cool. You get a sick kart, vai kart to drive down the rua like a maniac, and hit people if you want, but just get ready for the cops to be hot on your trail in less than a second. And once again, I gotta elaborate, that soundtrack. That nice baixo violão, guitarra mixed with those chimes really give this game a sort of style. It all feels like a sort of boarding school feel, kinda like Harry Potter in a sense. It’s easily a favorito soundtrack of mine, honestly. But I’ve said that about a lot of games at this point.
Bully was the right kind of game for Rockstar to release. It gives that nostalgic feel of when you were a child and all you had to worry about was getting your homework done on time. No worries, no fears, nothing, minus the crazy bullies. It was just an no geral, global fun and charming game, and I can totally see why people are begging Rockstar for a sequel. Come on, Rockstar. Bully 2. Make it happen.