Rockstar Games is no stranger to controversy. When the brains behind the Grand Theft Auto series unleashed their schoolyard opus back in October of 2006 it was met by similar criticisms from the usual anti-gaming activists. Bully was however praised by gamers for its humorous storyline, witty dialogue, and vast gameplay variety. Bully caught the tail end of the PlayStation 2’s life cycle and was overlooked by a lot of people who had already made the next-gen leap. Fortunately Rockstar decided to re-release the game as Bully: Scholarship Edition for the Xbox 360 featuring an upgraded graphics engine, four new classes, eight new missions, additional characters, new unlockable items, and multiplayer mini-games.

In Bully you take on the roll of 15 year-old teenage troublemaker Jimmy Hopkins. After being thrown out of several previous private schools you’ve been dumped at the Bullworth Academy gates by your mother and new step-father while they take off on a year-long honeymoon cruise. It’s up to you to learn how to navigate your new surroundings, survive the school year, and ultimately conquer the diverse social cliques occupying Bullworth.

The game follows the same third person “sandbox” formula that Rockstar made infamous in its Grand Theft Auto titles. The basic goal is to complete a variety of cut scene driven missions over the course of five distinct chapters. Additional missions become available to you in a linear fashion after you successfully complete previous ones. Each mission doesn’t require a huge investment of time and the map indicators always keep you on target. In addition to the core missions there are a smorgasbord of side missions, items to collect, errands to run, classes to attend, races to win, girls to kiss, and boys to harass. By the way, those last two can be interchanged, if you are so inclined.

You begin each school day in your dorm room which serves as your home base. Here you can save your game, go to sleep each night, change into a multitude of unlockable outfits, craft prankster gear with your chemistry set, or just gawk at the decorative trophies that are added as mission rewards. You are required to attend two classes each day. If you don’t feel like having your day dictated by the clock you can choose to thumb your nose at the class schedule and do your own thing, just make sure you aren’t caught by a prefect or police officer. If you do decide to show up for class you’ll find that there are benefits to such studious endeavors. Not only are the mini-games you’ll face in each class creative and enjoyable, they will often reward you with useful items or character upgrades. Each class has five levels of difficulty and once you complete each level you are no longer required to attend.

During the first chapter you are confined to school grounds but as the game progresses you are able to venture out into the surrounding community. At first you may find it difficult to balance your time between attending classes and doing missions but as you complete your curriculum it becomes much easier. To help you navigate newly accessible areas more quickly you are able to operate several modes of transportation such as a skateboard, bike, scooter, and even a go-kart. You can also instantly warp back to school grounds by hopping a bus from one of numerous bus stops spread throughout the city. You will eventually acquire other locations to save your game which make traveling back to campus less and less necessary.

Controls are a bit of a mixed bag. Mini-games each have their own specific set of controls that range from slick to merely adequate. Often times you need to move a pointer around the screen and it just doesn’t move quite fast enough. Actions in normal third person mode tend to be much easier to control. Bully features a surprisingly robust combat system that utilizes a combo system composed of punches, kicks, and grapple maneuvers. You are able to add additional moves to your fighting repertoire during the course of the game. In addition to these melee attacks you have an assortment of ranged attacks available by selecting the device with the D-pad and attacking with the right trigger. Keep in mind Bully is a Teen rated game so the violence is never over the top. Instead of firearms you’ll equip items such as a slingshot, eggs, and stink bombs.

Although originally released on the PlayStation 2 it has received a visual boost from an upgraded graphics engine. It may not have the same polish as some current next-gen titles it certainly is no slouch. It does suffer from an occasional stutter or FPS hit but not to a degree that it diminishes gameplay. The character models are a bit stiff at times and the lip synch isn’t always right on the money. Bully also suffers from frequent load screens but they only last a few seconds.