Below are user reviews of Bully : Scholarship Edition and on the right are links to professionally written reviews.
The summary of review scores shows the distribution of scores given by the professional reviewers for Bully : Scholarship Edition.
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User Reviews (1 - 11 of 12)
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one of the best games from PS2 just got better!
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 80 / 86
Date: March 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User
first, please vote whether this helps or not. otherwise its kind of pointless writing these. yes/no buttons are right at the bottom of the review. thanks.
if you enjoyed this game on the PS2 half as much as me, you're going to love it on the 360. there's tons of new content including 8 new missions, 4 new classes, new characters, two-player classes/mini games, new unlockables, new rewards and achievements. in total you get 82 missions, 45 lessons, loads of mini games and collectibles. 30+ hours of gameplay.
its an open world sandbox game with deeper combat options than most, full of options to dispatch your enemies, including tackles, headbutts, and a few wresting grapples. the world is pretty massive, and will take some time to fully explore. maybe its just me, but the environments seem to be expanded pretty majorly from the PS2 version. theres a few vehicles you can use to explore the campus and the surrounding town including a skateboard, bicycles, go-carts, and scooters.
the graphics have been revamped significantly. an all new lighting/shadow system has been added, along with high resolution textures. it still doesnt compare to most xbox 360 games, but thats not the point, and thats probably a big part of its price.
this game has more general character and spirit than almost any other game ive played. everyone is a pretty believeable character in thier universe. playing this really takes you back. its like being in highschool all over again, but if you want to shove someone into a locker you can, you want to pinch your teachers behind as she walks past? go for it! you wanna watch the hall monitor(prefect) fall in your scattered marbles, only to be shot down by your bottle rockets when he chases after you?? no problem! there is great variety of people to interect with, each group with their own members and unique personalities:jocks, nerds, preppies, bullies, greasers, teachers, townies, carnies.
its the Grand Theft Auto of the schoolyard, complete with no killing, and the lack of anything too offensive. during its developement, this was quickly becomming one of the most controversial games in years. upon its release, all the soccer moms and political wives with nothing better to do than scapegoat video games were slapped in the face by a harmless romp down memory lane, with a few complimentary wedgies.
add a surprisingly good story full of twists that goes through the whole school year and a cast rivaled by very few games, and you have yourself the answer to your open-world thirst. this should easily hold you off till GTA IV comes out.
A Very Buggy Port
2
Rating: 2,
Useful: 13 / 20
Date: March 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User
I played the PS2 version of Bully when it came out and it turned out to be one of my very favorite games, so needless to say I was looking forward to the expanded Xbox360 version. The game was obviously improved with more classes and missions and playing is as fun as it was in the original and even more challenging. My problem is that the game has proven to be a technical nightmare. Several of the missions and classes seem to have bugs in them and the game has completely frozen up my console half a dozen times in the three days I've been playing it. Executives at Rockstar Games have said that the problem is with older model Xbox360 consoles, but my system is an Xbox360 Pro Bundle that was only bought in Dec. '07. Obviously I made a mistake to order this game as soon as it came out, and I can only hope that Rockstar comes up with a satisfactory solution to these issues, either through a downloadable patch or a disc replacement, in short order. My advice on this game is to hold off getting it until these issues have been resolved.
It's The Little Things...
3
Rating: 3,
Useful: 7 / 13
Date: March 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User
Recently I took a break from playing Bully and visited an old acquaintance of mine. My ex-girlfriend, actually, but we're still an amiable terms together. She asked what game I was playing nowadays, to which I replied, "Bully," and she asked if I thought the game would be fun on the Wii, and after thinking about it for a moment I said that it would be a great game on the Wii. The reason for this statement was because Bully is comprised of loads of mini-games. Pretty much the entire game is nothing but mini-games from shooting galleries, racing, dodge ball, and dozens more. The diversity of the mini-games is enough for any Wii owner to get full use out of the stupid controller that elderly people seem to love so much. While the graphics aren't stellar and San Andreas is definitely bigger, it's the little things in Bully that make the game really fun. Not just the above mentioned mini-games, but also the fact the Bully wants you to find all of the hidden items. The game gives you the locations of these items on you map. All you have to do is pass Geography. It's the little touches like that that could've been used on any one of the Grand Theft Auto games. How many of us really found all of the statues on GTA without the use of a book or downloaded reference. I sure as heck didn't.
Unfortunately, while it's the little things that make Bully fun, it's also the little things that severely hurt the game, as well. Little things like say...NOT CRASHING would've made the game at least 42% better. It's not just the fact that it crashes, but that it crashes right after a big mission before I get a chance to save! Other little things could've been added to improve this title as well. like the ability to take off your helmet when not riding. I now you need a wardrobe to change clothes, but all I need are my hands to take off the helmet. If you want to be a law abiding citizen while on your moped, then be prepared for a lot of cut-scenes with Jimmy wearing full face protection. Maybe if they have a peanut shell helmet it would go over better, but unfortunately they don't. There are also a lot of cut scenes where the animation looks unfinished. Why does the drunken teacher's hand go through the bottle of booze instead of holding it? You see arm, bottle, and then fingers. It looks quite ridiculous. It's the little polishing touches that testers and QA people get paid to do, but are not so apparent with Bully.
Overall, the game is pretty fun. I would recommend renting it instead of buying it, though. Save your money for another day unless, of course, you own a Wii. Then I recommend you dip into that monthly Social Security check and splurge a little.
Pros:
Controls: A- (probably an A+ on the Wii)
Playability: A
Story: A- (you see a lot of plot twists coming)
Cons:
Stability: D
Graphics: B- (this is a next-gen game after all)
Polish: C (looks a little unfinished)
Fun game with nonsensical plot...
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 5 / 10
Date: March 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User
I played Bully on PS2 before, back in college, and had a reasonably good time with it. I did think it was a bit repetitive, and perhaps a little juvenile, and by that I mean immature, easy and generally aimed more at bratty 14-year-olds than hardcore gamers. Regardless, I was quite excited when I heard aboout Bully moving to the more powerful XBox 360 engine - the possibilities were limitless. I imagined this game where you start off as a complete dork, and then by being cunning, sneaky, and perhaps completing certain missions, you slowly become the one bullying the dorks.
Well, as you can probably guess, that plot-line turned out to stay firmly planted in my perhaps overly eager imagination - in reality, Bully's plot-line remains highly implausible. You basically try to stop bullying... by being a bully yourself, to everyone in the school.
Well, okay - you start off as a kid outside Bullworth Academy grounds - and for a while, you can't even get in. Once the school doors open, you get accepted by the bullies, and then the fun starts. There are different missions to complete, and the writing is often quite witty; it's just that the general story-line doesn't really make sense. You get reactions from people - adoration from dorks who want to kiss you (yes, both sexes), praise by fellow bullies, and if you dress in certain clothes, laughter (even from the dorks!) - and in a way the story progresses, but I never really got the feeling that one thing led to another, in a progressive way that made sense.
But there are many good points. The graphics have been enhanced, and are suitably varied. You get the whole town of Bullworth to explore and cause trouble in, and it provides a helluva lot of nifty little side-tracks. All the characters look different. You get to complete fun missions; and you have the choice of whether or not you want to skip a class. I attended most of my classes, and so far it seems to have paid off with special bonus points.
So while the story gets a bit tedious, there are enough worthy moments for any fan of the previous Bully installments - or any action/adventure game - to get Bully and have a blast.
One in my collection of favorites
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 23, 2008
Author: Amazon User
This game is fun in so many ways. I rented it for PS2 very early last year and I decided to buy it when I found out it was being released for the 360. I'm glad I did. It's GTA in a teen world, I say that because there is really no blood visible and no guns. There's much to do. You can go to class or skip it if you want, you always get infinite chances to complete the class you're on. For example, the class system is you do 5 classes of each subject. Let's say if you're on class 3 and you skip it, you have a chance to do it tomorrow (in-game time, of course) and the day after that, etc.
There is a carnival in this game where you can play different games to earn tickets to buy items like a Moped, posters, a clown outfit, and other things. There are 3 different sections of the whole map. One is a suburban neighborhood, the other is an 'industrial powerplant' area, grungy all around and sort of poor looking. That's where the townies are located. The last is an area where you can find various stores and the beach. The carnival is located there down a road through a tunnel.
Anyway, I think people interested in the RPG, free-roam, and adventure genres would enjoy this game. The fighting is great in my opinion, the way you can throw people in trash cans and give them swirlies. People of all ages, well obviously not parents, would like this and get at least SOME fun out of it. When you do the missions you need to do to progress in the game, sometimes you unlock outfits or items, depending on the mission (they're always the same no matter how many times you play it). The "Endless Summer" chapter you get after you beat the game is a great way to complete all the classes you didn't get to finish during the actual chapters, and also do all the side quests to get achievements and some extra cash for new hairstyles, clothes, etc. This has good replay value after you've beaten it for a while and are tired of playing the Endless Summer chapter AND want to relive the mission experiences. If you are totally unsure if you should buy this or not, go rent it and see if it's worth it. Hope this helped.
Welcome to Bullworth Academy
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User
If you haven't played Bully, let me say that you are in for a huge treat. First off, Rockstar was kind enough to lop ten bucks off the purchase price so this is being sold for fifty bucks, which is actually a steal, considering how much content this game has. Let me also dispel any notions of this being a "schoolyard GTA", in fact, the high school that I go to is worse than this game is. You don't kill people, there is no blood; the whole atmosphere is very tongue in cheek.
Bully is an open world game set in the fictitous Bullworth Academy and its neighboring town. While that may not sound like a huge world to explore, there is so much detail in everything that you will hardly notice this. You start out as Jimmy Hopkins, a fifteen year old delinquent dropped off by your mother and new stepdad at boarding school. Right away, you figure out that the teachers are corrupt, the students are all part of conformist cliques, the prefects are out to bust anyone for putting a toe over the line, and the only kid like you is a power-hungry jerk. Thanks, mom.
The gameplay is extremely solid. Combat is varied, with a number of ways you can take on the prefects, teachers, or townspeople. You can, of course, punch, kick, etc, but you can also throw eggs, use stink bombs, lob firecrackers...you get the picture. The number and sheer variety of missions is extraordinary. It took me well over 100 hours to achieve absolutely everything in the game and get all the Achievements (which are quite fun and varied as well). And believe me, you won't regret an hour spent playing. Even classroom activities are really enjoyable, offering up some unique minigames, which benefit your everyday skills (e.g., if you excel in Art, you will have more success with the ladies).
The plot is very well done, and humor is ever present. Jimmy needs to win over the groups of students: the Nerds, Jocks, Preps, Greasers, and Bullies. Along the way, you'll run into missions delving into calendar year functions, such as Halloween and Christmas. Everything you do is related to something else, which makes the whole game that much more enjoyable. (However, if you already played this on PS2, there isn't a ton of new content here, 8 missions, 4 classes, multiplayer, and Achievements are about it).
Here's to a sequel that hopefully will be coming soon!
THIS GAME IS BROKEN!
1
Rating: 1,
Useful: 2 / 16
Date: April 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User
This game as it comes to your house in the box is broken. It was sloppily rushed out the door by Rockstar Games (probably because they just saw it as a trip to the bank after the amateur programmer's weekend it took to port this over to the 360) The game locks up randomly while playing. It's a fun game, but not if you have to replay the same tedious thirty minutes 7 times. Rockstar acknowledged this, and released an internet patch to fix it, but if you don't have an xbox that is online capable you will have this broken game FOREVER!!!! You shouldn't buy this piece of crap anyways, DONT LET ROCKSTAR SHOVE BROKEN CRAP DOWN OUR THROATS!
Seems Ok
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 0 / 3
Date: March 11, 2008
Author: Amazon User
This Game seems like its ok to me it's alot like GTA. I like how you can opt to skip class Its like GTA is a teen world. It would be a nice litle game to come put before GTA and GTA is like the teens adult life now all rockstar needs to do is come out with a baby version and an old Man Version that'd be nice Thanks Rockstar you guys keep doing it!!!!!!!!
Now it is safe to swim
5
Rating: 5,
Useful: 0 / 1
Date: April 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User
Rockstar has now released a patch to fix our beloved bully. So now is the best time to buy.
Bull is exellent game that is extremely fun and full of witty dialoge and story. I personaly think its better than GTA but that's my opinion.
Dont buy unless you have internet access to download the new patches.
Great game, but....
4
Rating: 4,
Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 12, 2008
Author: Amazon User
This is really a great game. It is incredibly random and lots of fun. I do, however, have two problems with this game. The first are the frequent load times. Anytime you enter into a conversation with someone and enter or exit a building (which is approximately every minute), you have to endure the a loading period. The load times aren't overly long, but they are far to frequent. The second problem I have had is that the game does tend to freeze. I got it yesterday, and so far it has done it twice. Other than that, the game really is a good time.
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