gamerjet's Full Review: Bully: Scholarship Edition for Nintendo Wii
Bully Scholarship Edition presents the tale of young Jimmy Hopkins, a teenage boy who simply can’t avoid trouble. He gets dumped off at Bullworth Academy by his mom who’s more interested in her fifth honeymoon. Jimmy Hopkins has made many mistakes in the past, but he doesn’t have to continue down that path. You get to decide Jimmy Hopkins’ fate. Will your choices hinder or helper young Hopkins?
Bully Scholarship Edition is an enhanced re-release of the Playstation 2 Rock Star game “Bully”. Bully Scholarship Edition features a Story mode and a Multiplayer mode.
In the Story mode, you play as young Jimmy Hopkins, a student of Bullworth Academy. Your ultimate goal in Bully Scholarship Edition is to survive the school year, which won’t be an easy task. Initially, Jimmy Hopkins is stuck on campus, but as the story progresses, young Hopkins is allowed the freedom to explore the off campus grounds of the Bullworth area. Bullworth is divided into 5 sections: Bullworth Academy, Old Bullworth Vale, Bullworth Town, New Coventry, and Blue Skies Industrial.
The game interface features a clock in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, which you use to tell time in-game. The clock is a very important game factor, because missions and classes are only available at certain times of the day or night. For example, classes start each day at 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. and are only available for a short period of time. In the upper right-hand corner of the screen is a sphere containing your health meter and trouble meter and in the center of the sphere is a small map showing your current position and the area layout nearby. The trouble meter fills as Jimmy commits misdemeanors from yellow to orange to finally red. In the lower left-hand corner of the screen you’ll find your current equipped item. In the lower right-hand corner of the screen you’ll find your interactions menu. The interactions available can vary depending upon location, person, and current mission. The interface of Bully Scholarship Edition is organized very well.
Jimmy Hopkins can tackle any mission or class available in any order he chooses. Also, if you desire, you can skip missions or classes and simply do as you please. Certain missions however must be completed at some point in order to advance to the end of the game. Thankfully, the game doesn’t pressure the player to rush through anything. The missions are nicely varied ranging from a panty raid in the girl’s dorm to helping a drunken Santa. The game features about 60 main missions and 30 side missions. You can also attend (or skip) eight different classes available at Bullworth Academy, which include: Math, English, Biology, Art, Music, Geography, Chemistry, Photography, Gym, and Shop. Each class has 5 levels and upon successful completion of a class level you earn a reward.
In Math class, you must answer multiple choice math questions as quickly as possible. The Math class game play is similar to the Wii game “Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree”. In English class, you are given a scramble of six letters and must create a certain number of words with those six letters before class ends. In Biology Class, you dissect animals in similar fashion to the Wii Trauma Center games. In Art class, you uncover a hidden picture with your pen while dodging enemies such as thumbtacks and sticks of dynamite. In Music class, you bang your Wii-mote and Nunchuk to the beat of music similar to a Dance Dance Revolution game, except you don’t use your feet! In Geography class, you must identify countries on a map with push pin flags. In Chemistry class, you move your Wii-mote and Nunchuk and push buttons to mix chemicals. In Photography class, you’re given an assignment to take pictures of certain items/people around Bullworth. In Gym class, you play dodge ball and wrestle. In Shop class, you repair bikes by moving the Wii-mote and Nun chuck and pushing buttons.
When not attending (or skipping) classes and doing missions, young Hopkins can run errands, mow lawns, get a paper route, play arcade games, go swimming in the Bullworth river, give wedgies, kiss girls, and even, pinch girl’s bottoms! Jimmy Hopkins can wield many different “School Supplies” to aid him in his ultimate goal including: Firecrackers, a Slingshot, a Skateboard, Stink Bombs, Marbles, Itching Powder, Eggs, a Spud Gun, a Bottle Rocket Launcher and several other unlockable items. While attending at Bullworth Academy and exploring Bullworth, Jimmy Hopkins will run across several groups of individuals including: Nerds, Preppies, Jocks, Greasers, Prefects, Girls, Teachers, and Townies. The Nerds are strong minded, but physically weak. The Preppies or rich kids prance around like their best. The Jocks aren’t the brightest, but they got muscle. The greasers wear leather jackets and are the big kids. The Prefects are the police of Bullworth Academy and their always on the look-out for trouble-some students. The Girls, well, their most attractive! The Teachers are there to annoy, I mean teach. Finally, the Townies are the residents of Bullworth and they don’t like trouble-some students in their view.
Bully Scholarship Edition features so many secrets and tasks, it’s simply amazing! Playing the game to 100% completion can easily take 40 hours or more depending on how you play. The story of Bully Scholarship Edition is filled with lots of laughs, and plenty of twists and surprises to please just about any gamer. Personally, I loved the story, I though it was pretty cool how Rock Star made such an involving, creative story that seemed realistic. In the multiplayer mode, you can play the classes and some of the arcade games with a friend. The only downside to multiplayer mode is, if you don’t have an additional Wii-mote and Nunchuk, you won’t be able to play the multiplayer mode.
The music, sound effects, and voice acting of Bully Scholarship are spectacular! The music, while all instrumental, shifts perfectly from soft to intense depending on the Scenario young Jimmy is in. The music is so enjoyable, that at times I actually just stopped playing and listened for a few minutes. The sound effects are done equally as well. Rock Star has perfectly captured the sound of fire alarms ringing through Bullworth Academy, the splashing of Jimmy as he swims, and the breaking of glass. The voice acting is excellent; I dare even say the best I’ve ever heard in a video-game. The voices really bring the characters to life and add to the overall realism of the game.
The controls fit the Wii and the game perfectly. You punch with the Wii-Mote (Like Wii Sports: Boxing) and you kick with the Nunchuk. You move Jimmy Hopkins with the control stick on the Nunchuk. The C button is the manual lock-on. The Z button lets Jimmy grapple and Interact. The control pad on the Wii-mote functions as the camera with rotate assigned to the left and right; with zoom in assigned to up and zoom out and jump assigned to down. The A button allows Jimmy to sprint. The “-“ button and “+” button cycle through the equipped item. The 1 button pauses the game and the 2 button displays available missions/classes/objectives. Holding the Z button and the down on the control pad allows Jimmy to crouch. The B button allows Jimmy to shoot his Slinger Shot and other firing weapons. The controls all work very well and add to the overall experience of realism.
The graphics look very good for the Wii. All of the characters and Bullworth look fairly realistic. It’s certainly one of Rock Star’s best looking games to date in my opinion. The graphics are improved over the original Playstation 2’s Bully significantly. Occasional graphic glitches do occur however, especially in certain missions for some reason. Bully Scholarship Edition also has one other glitch I encountered several times during game play. At random times, for no particular reason, the game would suffer a one to two second freeze and then return to normal like nothing happened. Thankfully, this glitch didn’t prove troublesome. Also worth noting, the game did crash on me once.
Bully Scholarship Edition is an excellently crafted Rock Star Game. If you enjoy action games or are a fan of the original Bully or you never got the chance to experience the Original Bully, I would highly recommend adding Bully Scholarship Edition to your permanent Wii game library.
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