Bargain Bin Gaming- Episode Eight: Bully

ss_02“Bully” is a PS2 greatest hit and runs for 20 dollars brand new at most game outlets. It can be found as cheaply as $3.99 at Amazon.com however.

Your mother just remarried an old geezer and sent you off to boarding school, in hopes that you turn your little juvenile delinquent life around while she’s enjoying herself on her honeymoon. In this situation lie two choices. Do you turn your act around and try to be a productive member of society, or do you dive deeper into the pit of a lost teenager bent with rage and aggression with no real aspirations for attaining any future success?

As Keanu Reeves would say, ‘What do you do?’

It could be the plot of a movie, but instead it’s the situation the main character in Rockstar’s video game, “Bully,” finds himself in. Using this story as a background, Rockstar has found a way to combine the world of “Grand Theft Auto” with the one from the film, “The Dead Poet’s Society,” creating a game that is not only oozing with ’80s and ’90s pop culture, but one that is a blast to play and will remind you of how hard it was to find your way during your own high school years and what you did to make sense of it all.

While it’s obvious that anyone playing Bully would see a huge likeness to other games in Rockstar’s portfolio, such as “The Warriors,” “Manhunt “and the various “Grand Theft Auto” games, the game really goes out of its way to separate itself from the pack. Not only does Bully feature an original soundtrack, unlike many previous Rockstar games, it gives the gamer so many things to do during the course of the game that there never seems to be enough time to do it all, making the gamer come back every single day to get more done.

While it may be a stretch, even without a leveling up system, the type of gameplay that has been made famous by titles such as “Everquest” and “World of Warcraft” is definitely present in “Bully” because there are simply so many things to do in the game. First and foremost, our main character, Jimmy Hopkins, must go to class because truth be told, despite being an aspiring and eventual bully, he’s still a student. Going to class may seem a little tedious at first, but once the gamer sees that performing well in class has a real effect in the game, as performing well in gym class can make you a better fighter and passing English exams will help you talk your way out of trouble with the prefects, classes become more fun than mandatory.

Once you’re out of class, the mission-style gaming made famous in GTA dominates the gameplay experience, making you do everything from hiding your English teachers scotch bottles so he doesn’t get fired to walking girls home from class, providing a good balance from the mini-games you perform while in class. As a whole, Bully’s gameplay never really gets repetitive and while the controls may be a bit difficult at first, they eventually wind up becoming extremely intuitive and responsive after a few hours of gameplay.

When it’s all said and done, Bully is a hardcore gamers dream come true as its graphics, sound and gameplay are all top notch and extremely engaging and addictive. Jack Thompson may feel the game will turn you into a violent little miscreant and even though it probably will, that doesn’t mean it’s not a heck of a lot of fun to play and one of the best Playstation 2 games currently available.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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