Bully: Scholarship Edition Review

By Tom Bramwell Published 10 March, 2008

Thesis very good.

Version tested: Xbox 360

Rockstar Vancouver may have been copying GTA's homework a little when Bully came out on PS2 at the end of 2006, but it still changed enough words to impress teacher. Guns and cars were expelled, compressing the play area and allowing for greater variety and more developed controls, while the school setting and routine gave it a tighter structure. Roaming the halls and the neighbouring town of Bullworth, wise beyond the teenage years of most of the cast, it keyed in cleverly to the sense most of us have that we would like to go back to school because now we'd actually get the joke, and it would be more enjoyable. It was, and even though not much has changed for the 360's Scholarship Edition port by Mad Doc Software (look out for a separate Wii review tomorrow) it still is.

Playing as Jimmy Hopkins, a 15-year-old troublemaker given one last chance at Bullworth Academy, you start off racing between mini-game lessons, probing the school boundaries between classes, before heading back to the dorm every night for bed. Like GTA, you're directed to various icons on a mini-map, with stars denoting missions, and through these and Rockstar's traditional, well-written in-game cut-scenes, you're introduced to the world and the people in it, each a measured stereotype or caricature: the various cliques like the Nerds and Preps whose respect you'll be winning and losing; and characters like Petey, the bashful weakling; Russell the thuggish idiot; Galloway the drunken English teacher; Miss Danvers, the headmaster's fawning secretary; Tad the inbred rich kid; and Gary the manipulative bully.

There's a fair bit that you can do right from the off, and within a couple of hours you'll have assembled an inventory of neat gizmos - a slingshot, skateboard, stinkbombs - and abilities. Targeting other people with the left trigger, you can taunt or compliment them (the latter, if you follow it up with a gift, can lead to romance), or push them around. The combat is unavoidable, because Bullworth's a bit of a rotten place, but the controls are sound and your arsenal of attacks and grapples grows steadily and naturally as you swap radio parts with a homeless army veteran living just inside the grounds. The game itself is the best teacher in Bullworth, seldom leaving you stuck or unable to progress due to difficulty or poor education.

'Bully: Scholarship Edition' Screenshot 1

Graphical changes to the 360 version include higher resolution visuals and some nifty real-time shadows.

Jimmy's lessons are technically mandatory (prefects will escort you there if you get caught playing truant and can't evade them), and each is a mini-game. English has you racing to make words out of a jumble of letters, Art is about directing a paintbrush to annex areas of a hidden picture without getting smashed by a rubber, Gym goes through wrestling and dodgeball among other things, and Scholarship Edition-specific inclusions like Maths (quick-fire calculations) and Biology (Trauma Centre-influenced animal dissection - forget the anti-bullying lobby, has anyone told the idiots who burn down university boathouses?) are as good if not better than the rest of the curriculum. Successful completion of lessons unlocks new gadgets and skills.

But it's Jimmy's extra-curricular activities that dominate and define Bully, putting you on a path to showdown with the school's various faction leaders and chief bullies. Heavily influenced by GTA, there's lots of fighting, pushbike racing, spraypainting, covert photography, rhythm-response, and every conceivable fetch-quest. Success opens up new missions, new save locations, new toys and side missions. Jimmy can also simply mess around, tripping people with marbles, egging cars, booting footballs at thugs, and hunting down hidden rubberbands, gnomes, and G&G cards. Elsewhere there are one-off parlour games, like keepy-uppy, '80s arcade game knock-offs, and carnival target ranges.

New for 360, of course, are Achievements, plenty of which reward the incidental pranks and throwaway elements, tying them back into the main game. More of these could have been kept secret, perhaps, to dissuade you from going after them so pointedly (spending 15 minutes snogging a girl repeatedly and then doing the same with the guy standing next to her to get the "Casanova" and "Over the Rainbow" unlocks, for example), but the variety is welcome, and gives things like the go-kart races, paper round and lawn-mowing distractions a bit more purpose.

Also new for 360, sadly, are occasional crashes. Rockstar says it's "horrified" to discover they're there, but its defence that only older consoles are susceptible doesn't wash, our brand new office Xbox 360 Elite having locked up half a dozen times over a weekend of play. Bully's save-game system is a legacy of the PS2 memory card era, so you have to manually record your progress, meaning that there's much to lose unless you're diligent about this. When that often includes rubber-bands and other hidden items whose location you stumbled upon randomly, along with completed missions and unlocked or purchased items, it only exacerbates the problem's impact.

Frame-rate has also been identified as an issue, and it's certainly a bit disappointing to see the 360 struggle to keep a PS2 game running smoothly, but we only really noticed this when the frame-rate spiked to 60 - in shop interiors, for instance - and wouldn't claim it soured the experience particularly. The third-person camera, controlled on the right stick, which seems to be in constant disagreement with your left-stick movement control, is far more annoying - and even then only a tiny amount. 360 also welcomes some offline two-player games, based on elements of the single-player game, but we wouldn't really have noticed if they weren't included.

'Bully: Scholarship Edition' Screenshot 2

Bully doesn't used licensed music - and the result is a mix of genres rather cleverly applied to different elements. The main theme is like a twinkling, slighty sinister Harry Potter.

Otherwise, it's the PS2 game all over again. Assuming you didn't play that, this is terrific fun. The world, though small, is packed with things to do and very well realised, with seasonal graphical makeovers (and minor gameplay tweaks) at intervals along with the usual day-and-night cycle, a cast of well-executed crooks, chancers, idiots and innocents, and a terrific density and variety of gameplay. There's always something new to find or do, while the things you've already experienced only improve over the course of the game's five-and-a-bit chunky chapters, and the customisation elements (wardrobe, in particular - dress like a ninja to blend into the scenery, or run around wearing a hazmat helmet) are funnier than they often are in other openworld games.

Had the crash problems not made it into the retail code, we might have scored it higher, but Rockstar's programmers are in detention this week sorting it out, so hopefully within a few days of your reading this we won't feel like beating them up behind the bike-sheds as we do now. The fact we're so happy to be playing Bully again in spite of this ought to speak for itself.

8 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (52) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Nilsy #1 4 years ago

    Ah this pleases me. since I never tried the ps2 version, back in the day when I was poor, hungry and 360-less

  • BillyBrush #2 4 years ago

    Not sure i'll buy it again, but sending one of the teachers tumbling down a hill in a porta potty was a definite gaming highlight last year..

  • Dizzy #3 4 years ago

    Pity about that bad porting.Right now I am not interested until it gets patched.

  • BadBoyBonner #4 4 years ago

    Struggling frame rate?? Doesn't bode well for GTA IV.

  • pikemon #5 4 years ago

    anyone want to compare this to teh wii version?

    i've got a wii60 at the moment

  • LetsGo #6 4 years ago

    "Struggling frame rate?? Doesn't bode well for GTA IV. "

    All the GTA vids i've seen have had a dodgy frame rate IIRC.

  • DDevil #7 4 years ago

    Definitely buy it when it's patched. I bought it knowing about the crashes but I'm laughing away as it's a hilarious game. Not had any crashes myself actually (using a HDMI Falcon 360 by the way).

  • BadBoyBonner #8 4 years ago

    SJH

    I am basing my judgment on release code of their engine.

    "It'll be fine" - what are you basing that judgment on?

    /get's out bigger frying pan

  • sd99 #9 4 years ago

    @squarejawhero: "Struggling frame rate?? Doesn't bode well for GTA IV."

    Different engine. Bully is a port based on a last gen engine. GTA uses the new Rage engine (ala Table Tennis).

  • BadBoyBonner #10 4 years ago

    SD99

    Your right - not sure why I am worried with Table Tennis displaying so many people on screen in a large world setting the engine can clearly handle......wait a minute.

  • Darren #11 4 years ago

    Great review, really love this game. It was terrific on the PS2 and it's been perfectly recreated for the 360 - perhaps too perfectly given the fluctuating framerate - retaining the feel and playability of the original. It's definitely a fun and funny game, there's loads to do and it's constantly entertaining. I'd give it 9/10 myself, sandbox games don't really come much better than this IMO and it doesn't rely on extreme violence like other games in the genre either which is refreshing.

  • BBIAJ #12 4 years ago

    @BBB:

    Bully is a port (albeit built from the ground up), and even then, not done by R*, but by Mad Doc.

    GTaIV is also built from the ground up, but using the already established (and already mentioned), RAGE engine, and being done in-house by R*, so using Bully as a springboard to pre-judge GTa is illogical.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #13 4 years ago

    How does the Wii version hold up? I'm more interested in the Wii version and reading about the bugs and the framerate issues it might be the better choice.

  • GamesConnoisseur #14 4 years ago

    interesting to see comments of 'haha X360 got a bad port', as if feeling satisfied that not only PS3 that suffers from regular poor porting?!

    I got the game and now in chapter 3 and crashed for first time, but I would expect that to happen after reports of problems, frame rates not too noticeable but some characters do have a weird lightening glitches on a few times (banding effect) but mostly enjoyed playing it. To be honest I did have PS2 version but it was still in wrapper and when X360 version was annouced I decided to trade it in on expectation that X360 will equal or exceed and having it on HD. Also PS2 BC do have problems with certain titles on PS3.

    Glad I got it and by the way its running on a different engine to GTA4 anyway to the doomsayers! GTA4 is build up for next gen and Bully do certainly can see PS2's assets reused and getting bland textures and chunky polygons but still worthwhile game to get! 8/10 is fair but for me its 9/10 at moment with only one crash but saving is a hassle.

  • sd99 #15 4 years ago

    @BadBoyBonnerl "Your right - not sure why I am worried with Table Tennis displaying so many people on screen in a large world setting the engine can clearly handle......wait a minute."

    Oh come on - the Rage engine wasn't fully developed when TT was released, it was work in progress. They've had two years development since then. I admit early videos of GTA had framerate issues, but most games do - it's only tidied up during the last few months of development. Recent previews suggest things have improved somewhat...

  • Yaster #16 4 years ago

    "How does the Wii version hold up? I'm more interested in the Wii version and reading about the bugs and the framerate issues it might be the better choice. "

    Ahh but you don't get ACHIEVEMENTS when playing Wii games. I only play games with CHEEVS, thats why I bought the 360 version. I even played the PS2 version last year but that was only because my 360 had RROD and MS took 2 months to pick the damn thing up. Oh those 2 months were hell, my Gamerscore frozen at 9872, as soon as it came back I had a 24 hour session on Need For Speed Carbon to get my score back up!

    Seriously though if you have all the consoles and you're desperate to play this look into the Wii version, of course if you have a PS2 or one of the older PS3's the original is £9.99 in Game.

  • barchetta #17 4 years ago

    Not sure whether to go for this or not on two counts really.

    1) I too have a wii so will withold decision until I can compare both versions.

    2) (perhaps more importantly) The release of Bully is somewhat overshadowed, in my time-poor opinion, by GTAIV. Do I really want two 'similar' games (play-wise), that look pretty large, within the space of 2 months? I can't help but feel that Rockstar should have released this pre-Christmas to give it room to breath and find an audience - which it appears to deserve. I hope it doesn't suffer too much at the hands of its younger (and lets face it, more anticipated) sibling.

  • BadBoyBonner #18 4 years ago

    SD

    Yes TT was a "prototype" but clearly the engine existed - so why did they deny Mad Doc access to it in creating this port of an old game some 2 years later?

    Frod

    I agree with the second part - but that obviously interferes with your first point. Most on here seem to be missing the point with arguments of which engine is doing what from where - which was documented on IGN long ago for Scholarship edition.

    The point I am making and which you hinted at is this - regardless of engine - who the **** has allowed this game to go through to release with the inherent problems and the clear negative effect peoples perception will have due to the technical quality of it.

    If their standards are such as they will allow the release of this clearly one wonders just the threshold of quality is for the release of GTA IV - I'd rather them take a few more months and get it 99%right first time - than hear how "horrified" they are that a shitty version has been released..

    EDIT - Their not There lol Schoolboy error - "Bonner, detention 4pm sharp!"
    Edited by 2 at 10/03/08 @ 12:50

  • sd99 #19 4 years ago


    @BadBoyBonner: "Yes TT was a "prototype" but clearly the engine existed - so why did they deny Mad Doc access to it in creating this port of an old game some 2 years later? "

    Simply because the game was written using the old engine. If they wanted to use the new engine, they would have to rewrite the game from scratch rather than doing a port with a few graphical mods.

    Switching from one engine to another isn't a quick and simple job - you're effectively replacing all of your fundamental building blocks. It's like switching from duplo to lego...

  • mkreku #20 4 years ago

    Got this on my old PS2. Excellent game with a fantastic soundtrack.

  • TheBard #21 4 years ago

    I bought the game on Saturday and played it intensively on Sunday. And it's great fun. But the movement and stuttering problems really annoy me. And, aside from the hard crashes, which I encountered two times yesterday, there are a number of glitches which made me have to restart the game. For example, when I was finishing a courier mission and returned to the target, a cutscene triggered where my character would give him his package. In this moment, another character was running between my target and my character, causing them to get stuck in each other. But because this was a cutscene, I had no access to the controls, and no way to unstuck them. Similar stuff happened four times yesterday.

    I really hope this gets adressed by the patch also.

  • Floppy #22 4 years ago

    Yes, I'd be interested on hearing anyone's views in the Wii version too. I'm not having difficulties myself per se, but I'm sure the new Biology lessons would be a whole lot easier with the Wii Remote.

  • Yaz #23 4 years ago

    BadBoyBonner wrote "Yes TT was a "prototype" but clearly the engine existed - so why did they deny Mad Doc access to it in creating this port of an old game some 2 years later?"

    [link url=http:// www.ugo.com/ugo/html/article/?id=18131
    ]http://ww w.ugo.com/ugo/html/article/?id=...[/link]

    "It's important to note that the 360 conversion of Bully is actually being handled by Mad Doc Software, a development house best known for their Empire Earth series. Their most recent effort for Microsoft's console - Star Trek: Legacy - looked very nice despite being plagued by control and "lack of fun" issues. As a result, Bully: Scholarship Edition for the Xbox 360 is being designed with Mad Doc's proprietary engine rather than with RenderWare (the original game engine, from Criterion) or RAGE (Rockstar's new proprietary engine)."

  • Arcadiian #24 4 years ago

    Is this a budget release, or full price? o_O

  • BadBoyBonner #25 4 years ago

    SD

    "Simply because the game was written using the old engine. If they wanted to use the new engine, they would have to rewrite the game from scratch rather than doing a port with a few graphical mods.

    Switching from one engine to another isn't a quick and simple job - you're effectively replacing all of your fundamental building blocks. It's like switching from duplo to lego.."

    Well that is exactly what they did do - see the post from YAZ above

    For me, if the Rage engine was up an running they should have used it - it's really that simple for me. They could have used it as a self funding training exercise to bring new recruits up to speed.

    Instead - we have Mad Doc's flakey coded port - I'll still purchase it at some point - but seems it may be better to let the wrinkles be ironed out a while.
    Edited by 1 at 10/03/08 @ 13:18

  • BadBoyBonner #26 4 years ago

    @SJH

    "Bully has nothing to do with GTAIV, regardless. It's even developed by a different team on a different engine."

    Agree with the second part - but obviously people will link it to Rockstar and hence GTAIV - some through the controversy of Rockstar's bullying game should be banned yadayada - my concern is that Rockstar thought the quality was good enough for release, which it seems it clearly was not.

    In fact, were it not for the level of connectivity most 360's users seem to have (silver and gold) allowing updates - this product would probably have had to have a complete recall.
    Edited by 1 at 10/03/08 @ 13:24

  • sd99 #27 4 years ago

    BadBoyBonner

    Did they develop the Wii version alongside? If so, then perhaps this was the reason. Rage is a next gen gfx engine and the Wii probably isn't up to it.

  • BadBoyBonner #28 4 years ago

    Sd99

    Well TT is out for the Wii ! lol

  • gmmonkey #29 4 years ago

    The games locked up on me 3 times! Frame rate is terrible when you get on a bike around town. It should come with an epilepsy warning. IT's total BS! The first time I hadn't saved for 2 hours. Now I save after every mission, which is a pain in the arse because of the long loading times. Don't buy this unless you're connected to live so you can get their magical patch.... Total shit.

  • MGG #30 4 years ago

    "RenderWare" now theres a name to scare programmers. Or certainly me. Horrible, horrible engine.

    RAGE on the other hand is lovely.


    That is all.

  • Altrezia #31 4 years ago

    Just popped down to HMV and picked this up for £29.99.. gotta be worth a punt for that, eh

  • sd99 #32 4 years ago

    BadBoyBonner

    yeah, but as you say, TT doesnt have the crowds :)

  • dsmx #33 4 years ago

    Wasn't RenderWare was used to create burnout, black and GTA ? It must be fairly good, look at the graphics that black managed on a ps2.

  • Darren #34 4 years ago

    @DSMX - RenderWare was used for those games but while Black and Burnout looked great on their respective platforms, GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas looked ropey to me even at the time of their release but then they were far more ambitious games technically. I always felt that RenderWare was more of a PS2 engine and so few games that used the engine looked better on the Xbox despite its superior hardware. It still produced some great looking games though but like any engine it's upto the developers to make good use of it, e.g. look at how many poor looking Unreal Engine 3 games there are doing the rounds on the 360 and PS3; it's a powerful engine for sure but in the hands of lesser developers it can look (and run) awful.

  • Darren #35 4 years ago

    Erm... you can get a haircut in the game you know and change the colour if you want! ;)

  • spekkeh #36 4 years ago

    Is EG doing a wii review shortly, or no?

  • urban #37 4 years ago

    so basically its worth about £25 but its the same old bully..figured.

    /cracks out his old save game.

  • BadBoyBonner #38 4 years ago

    F3rrari

    "But underneath it all, i'd still be ginger."

    +1 funniest comment this year.

    EDIT - mind you I must contend that having just watched SO I married an Axe Murderer this weekend - I did imagine Mike Myers saying it while playing the part of his own Dad.

    "Look at the size o' that boys heed....."
    Edited by 1 at 10/03/08 @ 16:11

  • Feanor #39 4 years ago

    Generous score considering.

  • smelly #40 4 years ago

    >anyone want to compare this to teh wii version?

    Played both

    360 has better graphics
    wii's graphics flicker a lot (texture fighting) in places
    wii has motion controls (obviously) makes some levels where you're aiming at screen nicer
    360 version doesnt work on older machines (apparently)


    I'd say a tie.. but i'd lean towards the 360 version for the better graphics (they've done the standard wii shit of not bothering to update the wii graphics much)

  • jimbob101 #41 4 years ago

    Why have both Eurogame and GameCentral (UK Teletext) reviewed the 360 version. I would of thought more people would be more interested how it works with the Wii controls, rather than the upscaled graphics. No?

  • Darren #42 4 years ago

    @smelly - The 360 version has texture flickering issues, most prominently on distant buildings while travelling around the town. The colour palette is also more vibrant in the 360 version; it's somewhat washed out in the PS2 and Wii version.

  • DDevil #43 4 years ago

    Well, it's not just nicer graphics. There's more missions, and class mini games and so on. Plus EG said the Wii review will be up tomorrow.

  • TheDudesRug #44 4 years ago

    Jesus, teletext still exists? F me backwards, I'm stunned.

    Anyway, been playing this most of the weekend. Haven't suffered from any of the crashing issues that are so well documented, but this is basically a high res PS2 game. Entertaining, for a while - it's a six or a seven for me.

  • asphaltcowboy #45 4 years ago

    Some people clearly are commenting without reading the review:

    THE WII REVIEW IS OUT TOMORROW

  • smelly #46 4 years ago

    "Well, it's not just nicer graphics. There's more missions, and class mini games and so on. Plus EG said the Wii review will be up tomorrow."

    Those are all in the wii version too.

    Ive never played the ps2 version to compare though, but the wii version does look crap (even for a wii game)

    Something which is happening quite often nowadays unfortunately

  • smelly #47 4 years ago

    "I don't want to sound like a complete arsehole, but there is absolutely no way any game which crashes the console deserves an 8/10"


    It only crashes on older machines.

  • smelly #48 4 years ago

    uh?

  • smelly #49 4 years ago

    @asphaltcowboy:

    NO-ONE EVER reads the review.

    They look at score, straight into comments :-)

    Is it me, or is this game ridiculously easy and a bit .. dare i say.. boring? It's all over so quickly!

  • Der_tolle_Emil #50 4 years ago

    I did read the review, right when it was published. I'll just pretend they added the bit about the Wii review later. Maybe they really did.

  • red_shift #51 4 years ago

    I think it's great. It has crashed on me a few times so as soon as the patch is out, you guys should up the score.

  • Darren #52 4 years ago

    GameSpot's reviews of the Wii and 360 versions of Bully are up and the Wii version got the higher score: 8.0 vs. 7.0. I think you guess why that was the case... ;)