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Bully (video game)

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{{Infobox CVG |image = Game cover |developer = Rockstar Vancouver |publisher = Rockstar Games |designer = |engine= RenderWare

|released = PlayStation 2



[1]
Xbox 360 and Wii

The game is divided into six different chapters.

  • Chapter 1: Making New Friends and Enemies: Jimmy comes to 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 and Johnny Vincent, leader of the Greasers.
  • Chapter 4: A Healthy Mind in 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, Age 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.
  • 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 tasks 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.

Development

File:Bully Xbox 360.jpg
Bully Scholarship Edition. Xbox 360 cover.

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 game uses an advanced Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas engine through Renderware, completely changing all the programming code to make the gameplay different. Rockstar Vancouver also decided to make every student in the school have a unique appearance and, within programming limitations, personality.

Controversy

Bully has caused controversy among parents and educators. Criticisms are due to the adult nature of previous Rockstar games, in particular, the Hot Coffee mod in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and to certain aspects of the game, for example, its title (despite the fact the lead character is able to defend others from bullies as much as be a "bully" himself, is trying to end bullying at the Academy and any picking on female characters or smaller children is an extreme transgression within the game's internal rules with immediate punishments besides). Groups such as Bullying Online and Peaceaholics have criticized the game for glorifying or trivializing school bullying. Most of these criticisms, however, were voiced before the contents of the game were actually 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[2] 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.[3]

Sexuality

Sexuality is a minor but present theme throughout Bully. Five different missions involve Jimmy running missions on behalf of different girls, the successful completion of which earn 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. Although it does not play a role in the storyline and is strictly optional, Jimmy can kiss certain boys.[4] The inclusion of this caused a minor uproar; however, the ESRB claimed it was fully aware of the content when they gave it a T rating.[5] Other sexual themes involve a gym teacher who is stated to have hit on the girls in school, and a student reading a men's magazine - whether the magazine was fully pornographic or more along the lines of FHM can't be told as the magazine's pages aren't visible.Jimmy can also kiss the old lady at the nursing home who gives him the 'flowers on the graves' errand.

ESRB

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" (in response, many of his detractors have mockingly referred to it as nothing more than a "Dennis the Menace simulator"). Also, the protagonist of the game, Jimmy, is not a bully towards the nerds and misfits, but more of a defender of unpopular kids and bully towards bullies. 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."[6] 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).[7][8] On 2006-10-11 Judge Ronald Friedman ordered Take-Two and Rockstar to provide the court (not Thompson) with a copy of the game within 24 hours. On 2006-10-13 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.[9] Similar attempts to have the game banned have also been made by the charity Bullying Online and Labour Party M.P Keith Vaz in the UK[10]

When given a preview build, however, the mainstream 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 misbehaviour (for example, having to clear snow away as punishment for hitting a girl).[11]

Currys and PC World, both owned by DSG International plc, 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 and Woolworths, Virgin Megastores have all announced an intention to stock the game.[12] Interestingly, DSG stores still stock other Rockstar games including the GTA series, and other violent games like Manhunt, which both have BBFC 18 ratings, where Bully has a BBFC 15 rating.

Reception

Reviews
Publication Score
IGN
8.9 out of 10[13]
VG Resource Center
8.75 out of 10[14]
Gamesmaster
90%[15]
GameSpot
8.7 out of 10[16]
Gamestyle
7 out of 10[17]
1UP
10 out of 10[18]
Electronic Gaming Monthly
10 out of 10
Review compilations
Game Rankings
87% (based on 87 reviews)[19]
GameStats
8.8 out of 10 (based on 34 reviews)[20]
Metacritic
87 out of 100[21]

Bully has received generally positive reviews from critics.[21] The game received ratings of 8.9/10 from IGN, 9.0/10 from Games Radar, a perfect 10/10 from 1UP.com and Electronic Gaming Monthly, 8.7/10 from GameSpot, 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.

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[22]
  • Came in top ten of best Playstation 2 game of the year.

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ "Bully Game Info". GameFAQs. Retrieved 2007-07-23.
  2. ^ http://www.esrb.org/ratings/index.jsp
  3. ^ Ben Silverman (2007-09-17). "Controversial Games". Yahoo! Games. Retrieved 2007-09-19.
  4. ^ http://www.gamebrink.com/playstation-2/1833-Bully-video-2.html
  5. ^ Sinclair, Brendan (2006-10-26). "Bully's boy-on-boy scene causing a stir". gamespot.com. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
  6. ^ "Jack Thompson vs Adam Sessler". G4TV. 2006-08-10. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  7. ^ Sinclair, Brendan (2006-08-16). "Thompson wants to get hands on Bully". GameSpot. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |accessyear=, |month=, |accessmonthday=, and |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ Thompson, John B. "Verified petition to take deposition before action" (PDF). Ars Technica. Retrieved 2006-08-22.
  9. ^ Sinclair, Brendan (2006-10-13). "Report: Judge OKs Bully". GameSpot. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters: |month= and |coauthors= (help)
  10. ^ McCauley, Dennis (2005-12-02). "Brit MP Keeps Pushing Bully Around". GamePolitics.com. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Breznican, Anthony (2006-09-08). "Bully hits schoolyard, for good or bad". USA Today. Retrieved 2006-09-08. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ "Bully game dropped from UK shops". BBC News. 2006-10-18. Retrieved 2006-10-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ Jeremy Dunham (2006-10-16). "Bully Review". IGN. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  14. ^ Dennis Wyman. "Bully for PS2 review". VG Resource Center. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  15. ^ Mikel Reparaz. "Ever wanted to smack a sense of decency into your tormentors? Now's your chance". Games Radar. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  16. ^ Jeff Gerstmann (2006-10-19). "Bully for PlayStation 2 Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  17. ^ Jason Julier. "PlayStation 2 Review: Canis Canem Edit". Gamestyle. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  18. ^ Robert Ashley (2006-10-17). "Bully (PS2) Review". 1UP.com. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  19. ^ "Bully Reviews". GameRankings. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  20. ^ "Bully Reviews". GameStats. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  21. ^ a b "Bully PS2 Game Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
  22. ^ GT Staff (2007-01-05). "52 Games We'll Still Be Playing From 2006". Gaming Target. Retrieved 2007-07-20.
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