Bully (video game)

Bully
File:Bully Xbox 360.jpg Left: PlayStation 2 version, original release. Right: Xbox 360 version, Scholarship Edition.
Developer(s)	Rockstar Vancouver (PS2) Rockstar New England (Xbox 360) Rockstar Toronto (Wii)
Publisher(s)	Rockstar Games
Engine	RenderWare (PS2) Mad Doc’s Game Engine
Platform(s)	PlayStation 2, Wii, Xbox 360
Release	PlayStation 2 Wii, Xbox 360 UK: March 7 2008
Genre(s)	Action adventure
Mode(s)	Single player (PS2, Wii, Xbox 360), multiplayer (Xbox 360)

Bully, also known as Canis Canem Edit (Latin for "dog eat dog") for the PAL PlayStation 2 version, is a third person action-adventure video game released by Rockstar Vancouver for the PlayStation 2 (PS2) on October 17, 2006 in the United States, and October 25, 2006 in the United Kingdom. An Xbox version was planned but was canceled for undisclosed reasons. The game was rereleased as Bully: Scholarship Edition on March 4, 2008 for the Wii and Xbox 360. The PS2 version of the game is also available in the United States as a special edition that includes a limited edition comic book and a dodgeball of the same style as the ones used in the game, with the word "Bully" engraved on it.

Gameplay

Bully is a sandbox game set in a school environment. The player takes control of teenage rebel Jimmy Hopkins, who from the opening cutscene is revealed to be a difficult student with a criminal background. The game concerns the events that follow Jimmy being dropped off at Bullworth Academy, a fictional boarding school. The player is free to explore the school campus and town, or to complete the main missions. The game makes extensive use of minigames. Some are used to earn money, others to improve Jimmy's abilities.

School classes themselves are done in the form of minigames, broken into five levels of increasing difficulty. English, for example, is a word scramble minigame, and as Jimmy completes the level, he learns to apologize to bullies, deliver better taunts, apologize to prefects and finally to apologize to the police.

Jimmy Hopkins has a multitude of weapons available, although they tend to run along the lines of things a school boy might actually attain, such as slingshots, bags of marbles, Itching Powder, fire crackers, stink bombs, and later in the game, a bottle rocket launcher and a spud cannon. He also has an assortment of vehicles to operate — mainly bicycles with different abilities, but also a moped, a go-kart, a lawn mower and a skateboard.

Setting

The game takes place at Bullworth Academy, a fictional independent boarding school in the New England area of the United States. Jimmy ends up enrolled in the school when his newly married mother and stepfather go on a year-long honeymoon cruise. The school is located in the fictional town of Bullworth, which appears to exist in the same fictional universe as the Grand Theft Auto series. The school itself is a neo-gothic design and is similar to many other public schools and colleges in the United Kingdom and New England, in particular Fettes School in Edinburgh. A reference to the year being 1994–1995 as the setting can be seen in one of the various arcade machine minigames, though there are school banners from at least up to 1999.

Plot summary

• Chapter 1: Making New Friends and Enemies: Jimmy arrives at Bullworth Academy and immediately runs into trouble with the Bullies.
• Chapter 2: Rich Kid Blues: Jimmy is now more popular, but he must deal with the spoiled Preppies.
• Chapter 3: Love Makes the World Go Around: Jimmy gets mixed in with the love affairs of Lola but Johnny Vincent, leader of the Greasers, wants to take him down.
• Chapter 4: A Healthy Mind is a Healthy Body and Other Lies: Jimmy decides to take on the Jocks, but he first needs to convince the Nerds to help him.
• Chapter 5: The Fall and Rise of Jimmy Hopkins, Aged 15: Jimmy, after briefly enjoying his power as king of Bullworth Academy, is expelled. He has to clear his name and get re-enrolled back into the Academy while regaining control of the cliques.
• Chapter 6: Endless Summer: Jimmy can tie up any loose ends, such as finishing races, finding collectibles, etc.

Characters

File:Artwork Jimmy Hopkins.png

Artwork of the main character, Jimmy Hopkins.

Main article: List of characters in Bully

The game focuses on Bullworth's newest student, Jimmy Hopkins. As he advances through his academic career at Bullworth Academy, he may interact with the school's students and teachers, as well as people from the neighboring towns, many of whom will give him errands to complete. He is greeted by Gary Smith, a scheming, unstable sociopath, and Pete Kowalski, a shy student who has yet to make any friends. Jimmy has to navigate his way through the five cliques at the school — the Bullies, Nerds, Preppies, Greasers and Jocks — as well as the Townie kids, the school faculty and all the other adult townsfolk. Unlike other games from Rockstar no two characters in Bully are the same, and every character has a name.

Development

Early information released by Take-Two Interactive seemed to indicate that the player would be taking the role of a bully, and screenshots printed in Electronic Gaming Monthly showed the player-controlled antagonist administering a "swirlie" and throwing a punch at another student. The tone of the game has completely changed to a role of a former bully who has to deal with stereotypical cliques.

The PlayStation 2 version of the game uses an advanced Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas engine through Renderware. Rockstar Vancouver also decided to make every student in the school have a unique appearance and, within programming limitations, personality.

Because of EA acquiring the Renderware engine, the "Scholarship Editions" of Bully for the Wii and Xbox 360 used proprietary engines from Rockstar Toronto and Rockstar New England, respectively.

Controversy

Bully has caused controversy among parents and educators. Criticisms are due to the adult nature of previous Rockstar games, in particular, the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Hot Coffee minigame controversy and certain aspects of the game, for example, its title. Some groups counter that the protagonist is just as much defending himself and crusading to end bullying in the Academy, and that picking on girls or weaker kids is a serious transgression with serious ramifications. Groups such as Bullying Online and Peaceaholics have criticized the game for glorifying or trivializing school bullying. Most of these criticisms were voiced before the content of the game was available to the public. In 2006, the United States-based Entertainment Software Rating Board officially gave Bully a rating of "T" (suitable for ages 13 and up), the BBFC gave Canis Canem Edit a 15 rating and the New Zealand OFLC restricted it to persons 13 years of age and over. In 2007, Yahoo! Games listed it as one of the top ten controversial games of all time.

Sexuality

Sexuality is a present theme throughout Bully. Five different missions involve Jimmy running missions on behalf of different girls, the successful completion of which earns him a kiss. Additionally, the art class minigame is used to improve Jimmy's ability to talk to girls, as well as his ability to make out with them and receive a health bonus which can be expanded by passing classes in art. Jimmy can kiss certain boys, hinting towards the fact that Rockstar made Jimmy bisexual. The ESRB claimed it was fully aware of the content when they gave it a T rating. Other sexual themes involve a gym teacher who is stated to have hit on the girls in school, dissecting a rat's testicles, and a student reading a men's magazine.

United States

Prior to both the ESRB's rating and the release of Bully, Jack Thompson filed a lawsuit attempting to have the game blocked from store shelves in Florida. Thompson declared the game a "nuisance" and "Columbine simulator". He also argued this point on Attack of the Show along with Adam Sessler (with him on the opposite end) on the show's "The Loop." Thompson's petition, filed with the 11th Judicial Circuit Court, asked for Wal-Mart and Take-Two to furnish him with an advance copy of Bully so he could have "an independent third party" play the game and determine if it would constitute a public nuisance in the state of Florida, in which case it could be banned. On October 11, 2006, Judge Ronald Friedman ordered Take-Two and Rockstar to provide the court with a copy of the game within 24 hours. On October 13, 2006, Friedman subsequently ruled in favor of shipping the game, noting that there was no content in the game that was not already on late night TV. Thompson responded to the ruling with fiery speech directed at the judge.

When given a preview build, the mainstream American media took a generally positive opinion of the game. Press coverage has described the game as free-form, focusing on building a social network and learning new skills from classes, with strictly enforced punishments for serious misbehavior.

United Kingdom

Attempts to have the game banned have been made by the charity Bullying Online and Labour Party M.P Keith Vaz in the UK. Currys and PC World, both owned by DSG International, said that they do not wish to sell the game in the UK because it is "not appropriate for Currys' family-friendly image". The official statement lists what Currys believes is "the explicit link between violence and children" as the reason behind the ban, and continues: "We haven't taken this decision lightly, particularly considering the excellent relationship we have with Rockstar." However despite this decision other high street retailers including Game, HMV, Woolworths and Virgin Megastores have all announced an intention to stock the game. DSG stores still stock other Rockstar games including the GTA series, and other violent games like Manhunt, which both have BBFC 18 ratings, whereas Bully has a BBFC 15 rating.

Brazil

Bully was banned in Brazil. In April 2008, Brazilian justice prohibited the commerce, import and availability of the game in lan houses. The decision was taken by judge Flávio Mendes Rabelo from the state of Rio Grande do Sul based on psychological findings by the state psychology society which claims that the game would be potentially harmful to teenagers and adults. Anyone caught selling the game in Brazil would face a daily fine of R$1,000.00.

Reception

Reviews

Publication	Score
IGN	8.9 out of 10
VG Resource Center	8.75 out of 10
Gamesmaster	90%
GameSpot	8.7 out of 10
Gamestyle	7 out of 10
1UP	A+
Review compilations
Game Rankings	87% (based on 87 reviews)
GameStats	8.8 out of 10 (based on 34 reviews)
Metacritic	87 out of 100

Bully has received generally positive reviews from critics. The game received ratings of 8.9/10 from IGN, 9.0/10 from Games Radar, a perfect 10/10 from 1UP.com, 8.7/10 from GameSpot, 5/5 from JIVE Magazine, 8.75/10 from VGRC.net, a 5/5 from X-Play, and made the Top 10 Games of '06 in Playstation Magazine. Canis Canem Edit also got 9 / 10 from OPS2 Magazine. Critics generally praised the game's storyline, while they complained about particular stealth missions, as well as the camera. Critics also noted that the game is substantially easier than veterans of the Grand Theft Auto series (Rockstar's flagship titles) would expect.

As of March 12 2008, the PlayStation 2 version of Bully has sold 1.5 million copies according to Take-Two Interactive.

Awards

• Won IGN's award for Best PlayStation 2 Action Game.
• Won GameSpot's award for Best Original Music.
• Finalist for GameSpot's Game of the Year 2006
• Gaming Target - 52 Games We'll Still Be Playing From 2006 selection
• Came in top five of best Playstation 2 game of the year.

Bully: Scholarship Edition

Bully: Scholarship Edition was released for the Xbox 360 and Wii video game consoles on March 3 2008. The game features exclusive content which was unavailable in the PlayStation 2 version, including eight new missions, additional characters, four new school classes (biology, music, math and geography) and new unlockable items and clothing. Some script changes have been made, including small changes to missions from the PS2 version. The random NPCs also have more lines. In addition, single system 2-player competitive multiplayer minigames have also been added, along with Achievements for the Xbox 360 version and Wii Remote and Nunchuk motion and pointer controls for the Wii version. The Xbox 360 version also uses a new proprietary game engine by developers Rockstar New England.

Rockstar Games first announced the game on July 19 2007. On August 7 2007, RockstarWatch.net reported on the release of the Australian Bully: Scholarship Edition box art which included artwork of the protagonist, Jimmy Hopkins, and the school principal, Dr. Crabblesnitch. On February 3 2008, Rockstar announced the game's upcoming release on March 4, 2008 and posted the Scholarship Edition launch trailer at the Bully homepage.

Bully: Scholarship Edition was released in the PAL region under the original Bully title, and not Canis Canem Edit, as the original game was renamed.

Reception

Both versions of the game generally received positive reviews with IGN giving the Wii version an 8/10, while the Xbox 360 version received 8.7/10. 1up.com gave the Wii version an A- grade and the Xbox 360 version a B- grade. Gameplasma gave the Wii version a 9/10.

The Xbox 360 version of Bully: Scholarship Edition was found to be unstable on some players' consoles, resulting in glitches, crashes and performance issues. Rockstar promised to have a patch addressing these issues by the week of March 10, 2008. On Thursday March 20th, a patch was released via Xbox Live (v1.03), but some many reports claim to have continued or worsened problems.. The problems include audio issues, animation issues, and inability to complete Music classes due to differences between the Wii and Xbox 360 controllers. The most prevalent and common problem with the game is the unexplained freezing of the console, but not music being played on a connected mp3 player or hard drive. GameSpot, a game review website which bases its reviews on the initial public release, took the glitches into account and marked the 360 version of the Scholarship Edition down to a 7/10, a full point lower than the Wii version, which received an 8. The U.K. magazine Ngamer gave the game 90%.

Sequel

Scholarship Edition is considered a remake rather than a sequel. It is unknown whether Scholarship Edition will be ported to PlayStation 3. No news has been forthcoming from the publisher as regards a sequel, nor what platforms it would be released on.

See also

• Video game controversy

External links

• Official Bully Homepage
• Official Canis Canem Edit Homepage
• Press Release by Take Two Interactive
• BBC News article about the controversy
• Youth Council of Ireland wants boycott of “shocking" game
• Information about the Bully Soundtrack album, composed by Shawn Lee
• Voices and Choices: A Conversation with Shawn Lee
• Bully (Special Edition) at MobyGames
• Bully at MobyGames