Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2918 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Rockstar Games
• Released on: 2006-10-25
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platform: PlayStation2

Amazon.co.uk Review:
In a nutshell:
The game previously known as Bully is Rockstar’s most controversial title yet – despite the fact that almost everything that’s been written about it in the tabloids is wrong. You play the bullied not the bully in a cleverly observed pastiche of school life.

The lowdown:
Although this bares comparison to both Grand Theft Auto (in terms of the large freeform world and highly interactive environments) and The Warriors (the combat system is nearly identical) this is very different to Rockstar’s other games. Although you are supposed to attended lessons each day (doing well gives you new abilities and items) you’re free to explore Bulworth Academy at leisure with a wide range of missions from raiding the girl’s dormitory and fetching transistors for the local tramp to protecting nerds from bullies. In fact that the whole game is about surviving the school experience and making friends and ironically has a far more moral point to make than any of Rockstar’s previous titles.

Most exciting moment:
Although you can get into fist fights with other students there’s never any blood shed, just the odd pulled ear or Chinese burn. There are plenty of other school yard pranks you can pull of though with the judicious use of catapults, stink bombs and cherry bombs. You can also make out with girls (or boys if you so desire) if you can find a way to get on their good side.

Since you ask:
There have been numerous calls for the game to be banned in both the U.S. and UK, although tellingly all such calls were made long before the game was even previewed and were based solely on the name. The final product is only rated 15+ and features only mild amounts of violence.

The bottom line:
One of the most original games for years and far more wholesome than its reputation suggests.-HARRISON DENT

Customer Reviews

Nostalgic and engrossing
With the exception of the GTA series, this is Rockstars finest work to date. There's simply no other game available with such a unique atmosphere. The havoc you can wreak created a lot of nostalgic memories. The actual lessons are surprisingly varied. They range from a Pac Man style mini game for Art, to QTE button prompts for Chemistry and Shop. Once completed, these lessons give you increased skills. For example, once English is mastered, Jimmy will be able to talk himself out of trouble.

The missions still suffer from being little more than fetch quests, or simply require travel from point A to B, then to C. But the story that sets up each mission is always watchable, humourous, and develops the story so you actually care what happens next, which is rare for me.
I'm playing this game on my PS3 due to a severe lack of games for the system. I've been playing this for close to 4 weeks now and havent touched a PS3 game since. Surely this is proof that it's one of the most engrossing and enjoyable games available on any format.

Very good indeed
Canis Canem Edit is perfect if you find GTA games a bit too hard in certain spots, but want a challenge as well. I fall into this category. There are a number of missions in GTA which I just found too hard, and this Rockstar game has really hit the spot. It is not too easy, although the opening chapter or two is quite straight-forward. As you move on through the game, you start to notice the difficulty level raising, but at a steady rate to help you get to grips with all the games features.

The game follows a 15 year old, who has been expelled from all previous schools he's been to, so he ends up at Bullworth Academy, which Rockstar calls "the toughest school around". You take control of this 15 year old, Jimmy. It feels a lot like San Andreas the way the camera is positioned looking at the back of the character when you playing the game, but don't think this is just a cheap copy that Rockstar have brought out.
One of the most impressive features about this game is the individuality of your schoolmates. Every person in the school is different, they all have their own individual names, which is proven by the fact that you obtain a yearbook, where you take photos of everybody in your year. Here you notice how everyone has their own personality - not the generic passers by you find on San Andreas.
One example of a group in the school is the Nerds. Fairly obvious what type of people they are, and these are probably the funniest. They always bring a chuckle when I see the fat nerds walking with their flies undone, and the voice acting for them is particularly impressive.
The storyline is well explained and relatively easy to follow, and believable too. It can get a bit cheesy in places, for example cringeworthy moments include Jimmy celebrating having beaten someone up in a boxing ring "Who's the daddy? Jimmy Hopkins, that's who, I am the best, now I'll beat the rest". There's a couple of cliched lines like that, but otherwise the script writing is very good.

Perhaps one of the most annoying things about this game is the lessons. They are fun at first, but then you start getting annoyed. Every time you want to do something, the bell rings and you have to get to lesson otherwise you are seeing as truanting, so the prefects are onto you. There are two lessons a day at first, ending at 3:30pm and very little time to do much exploring, as you can't be in the school building after 7pm (the time is measured in game minutes = real time seconds) and there is a curfew where you must be in the dorm by 11pm. If you don't go to bed by 2am, you will pass out on the floor. This can be particularly frustrating when you want to go and explore the game. However, each lesson has 5 stages. If you pass all 5 stages of a lesson, you no longer need to go to that lesson. Finish them all, and you've got no lessons ever again, so you've got all day to explore and do missions. I recommend you finish the lessons before getting too impatient with the game.

The world is fairly expansive. Nowhere near the size of San Andreas, but then the game isn't really focused on travelling the world, it is more mission based within the school gates. There aren't nearly as many vehicles as a result, but I found this was good, because as a schoolboy, you are more likely to be riding BMXs and skateboards than driving in 18 wheelers. There are various shops to go into in the town, where you can buy eggs for throwing at people, clothes (for wearing!) and many more.

A surprising feature of the game is the angle Rockstar took. Most of the time, you are defending the bullied, rather than bullying the defenseless. Sure, you can do this, and it is fun, but the storyline is based on helping those in need. There is no blood in the game, just heavy fists fights, crotch-kicking and wedgies. This, I think, makes the game better, it is more realistic for a schoolground. Weapons are school-based; you have all the classics, like the slingshot, the stink bomb and the fire cracker amongst many others.

To sum up, I would say that if you are looking for a game that is fun, not too difficult but challenging in places, involves quite a fair amount of violence and doing school-based tasks for realistic amounts of money - then this is the game for you. Particularly enjoyable if you are feeling a bit nostalgic about the days in the old school yard.

A*
This is a fantastic game, although I admit that I was very wary of it at first. I'd seen trailers advertising it showing excessive bullying and the likes and didn't think it looked any good. My brother then bought it (much to my disgust) and yes...I got hooked. I made a game about 2 weeks ago now and have been steadily working through the world of Jimmy Hopkins - a young trouble maker that has been expelled from 7 schools only to end up at Bullworth Academy. Once at the school you have to begin earning respect from all of the peer groups - nerds, jocks, greasers, townies, and preppies. Doing this involves a hell of a lot of different missions, ranging from spraying graffiti over greaser town (New Coventry), shooting jocks using your slingshot, and stealing items back from people such as homework, diaries and the likes. As well as the respect challenges you also work through a range of tasks to gain money. These are usually of a comical nature; for example stuffing students into lockers, but also practical tasks like finding someones dog.
Whilst you begin to form friendships and respect amongst your classmates you start attending lessons. The curriculum at Bullworth includes English, Art, Photography, Chemistry, Shop and Gym. Each subject has 5 levels to master and once complete you can use the skills learnt in your every day life; gym for example teaches a mixture of wrestling and dodgeball which increases accuracy and teaches moves to beat people up with, whereas english gives you the ability to chat up and later kiss girls to unlock health bonuses.
As you progress through your lessons and complete tasks for friends, teachers and citizens you will be faced with new challenges allowing you to open up new areas of the vast map. Within the map are shops, barbers and the likes along with heaps more challenges for you to complete.

Overall this is a wicked game and so much better than I first expected. I find myself getting addicted to it and playing for hours on end. What I also like is the fact that you are allowed to fashion Jimmy exactly how you like; so he starts out as a skin headed chav but I personally have no made him into a rather sexy punk rocker/skater. There's loads to explore in this game and an enormous storyline with a few laughs thrown in as well. If you like other games by Rockstar, I'd highly recommend checking this out. 10/10