I am not a big fan of GTA games, mostly due to the fact that they very often introduce new mechanics into the system for a single mission and then take them away for the rest of the game. As a result you can't have the same fun in the freeroam.

Think of the mission at the start of GTAV where you sneak into Michael's home as Franklin. You don't really have some stealth system to master like in Splinter Cell. Your succeed by figuring out how the designers programmed the encounter. Don't go into any other rooms, wait a little until the characters finish talking and go where the minimap shows you. You haven't accumulated any knowledge on how to break into other homes because it's not possible in the game's world, you haven't learned how to use sneaking because the AI in the open-world is not designed around that. You just played through a heavily scripted interactive cutscene.

There are many more examples: like how you use the ability to pick up and throw items in one of the GTA4 missions to break a shop window to persuade a clerk to pay up. You can't use that as a mechanic to extort money from other shops in the city, it was strictly for this mission. You might as well never pick up any such items later on in the game because it's useless to do so.

So basically I don't like gimmick mechanics that come and go. This is why I have a certain admiration for Ubisoft games and their systemic design but these games have other problems of their own.

Bully is different. Sure it has some degree of that in some of its missions, but a lot of the design choices really benefit the game and the free-roam fun it offers. The reason is simple: the game's goal is to replicate the experience of being a teenage troublemaker. So you can start a food fight at the school cafeteria any time you want and you can play pranks on people, start a snowball fight, sneak into the girl dorm or pull a fire alarm to cause chaos during classes. And all that while being in the open world with no constraints.

It might sound like nothing, but really Bully allows the player to have much more control over the game world, something GTA games offered very little of. Couple that with a more lenient wanted system that allows you to get away with pretty much any mischief. It's all about having fun.

As for other elements of the game, the Story is brilliant. Being T-rated benefits this game greatly, since it can't rely on swearing or sex jokes. Much like every voiced GTA character, the protagonist is witty, honest and generally acts as a straight man surrounded by Houser's walking stereotypes: ridiculously ugly nerds, imbecilic bullies, insufferably stuck-up preps, roided jocks and pretentious greasers. And the school staff is no better: sex-pests, drunks and creeps. Hilarity ensues.

I appreciate that pretty much every GTA character is clearly shown as a psychopath. Be it GTA4 where Nico is openly talking about his "sins", GTA5 protagonists who seem to be very self-aware, and of course Tommy Vercetti of the Vice City fame, obvious nod to the craziest gangster of all - Scarface.

Jimmy is no different, jumping from one clique to the next like a mercenary he causes thousands of dollars worth of property damages and hospital bills. It's handled pretty well, you're no goody two-shoes but everybody else is so horrible that it doesn't seem like you're doing anything wrong.

Bully is jam-packed with activities besides the story missions. Go-kart and bike racing, boxing, classes (some surprisingly fun ones), carnival games, errands that other characters ask you to run, jobs in case you're short on cash and the obligatory collectathon. The smaller scale of the world results in a somewhat more detailed and tightly designed experience. It doesn't overbear you with its scale and opens up gradually, as the story progresses. 100%-ing the game did not feel like a chore, quite rewarding actually. Classes give you unique abilities and bonuses while races, errands and jobs add variety.

It's a Rockstar classic, along with Manhunt and the 3D GTA games. Released during an era of games that shipped complete and full, no DLCs, season passes, monetization, etc.

It's probably going to remain to be a unique and unmatched ruffian simulator. All the more reason to play it, I say.

Growing up, one of my absolute favourite games was Back to Skool for the ZX Spectrum. I’m not sure how many people who where playing games back then remember it. I have the impression it wasn’t very popular on release due to lack of marketing (a childhood buddy of mine actually came across it by chance), but at the time I thought it was the greatest thing ever. There was just so much I remember you could do in that game - especially for a title released in 1985 -, so much havoc you could wreak and so many different ways to wreak it. I have very fond memories of using that slingshot or stink bombs to create chaos, staring at that iconic tree next to the building, or desperately trying to get into the girls’ school. In a recent GOTY list I did, I realised Back to Skool was one of my top 5 games to be released until 1990 along with Tetris, Super Mario Bros, Prince of Persia and Castlevania. It was not until recently that I actually found out that game was a sequel to another one called Skool Daze which I never played.

As the years went by I started drifting away from video games, so I completely missed Bully when it came out. When I started making my way back into gaming I noticed it had garnered a bit of a cult status over time, and when I recently saw it on sale I decided to give it a go. The minute I started playing, I got catapulted back into all those awesome Back to Skool memories, which made me realise it was scratching a hitch I hadn’t even noticed I had. It then hit me these types of games, in similar settings and with related gameplay, are very niche (I honestly can’t remember any other), so revisiting Back to Skool through Bully was a really fun experience. The game has aged poorly since release, not even necessarily in terms of graphics but especially in mechanics - some movement issues are downright frustrating -, but it still offers you a ton of great moments even by today’s standards.

Just like Back to Skool all those years ago, I was taken aback by the amount of different things you can do and ways in which you can get into trouble (of course Bully takes it up quite a few notches in this department): the game is very generous with the freedom and space it gives you to explore both in and outside school grounds, and between riding vehicles, getting into fights, using a plethora of tools for a wide range of situations, playing arcade games, going on theme park rides, enter races and a ton of main and side quests, you can entertain yourself for hours. I ended up finishing the main quest and doing some side activities in about 12hrs (which meant I only completed about 55% of the game), because I have to admit at that point the game was starting to feel a bit repetitive to me. Depending on the type of gamer you are however, you can come out of it feeling the exact opposite. Both the day/night cycle and the seasonal weathers in chapters were a great touch and quite impressive for the time. The voice acting is superb and captivated me from the very first line. I also really liked some of the creative mechanics Rockstar introduced in missions, and I wish they had leaned into it a bit more. Speaking of Rockstar, it’s interesting to go back to Bully and see some mechanics and artistic style borrowed from the GTA III - San Andreas era, as well as the early implementation of the antagonising dialogue mechanic that went on to become a standout feature in titles like GTA V and RDR2.

As a whole, I had a pretty good time with Bully. The game allowed me to ‘revisit’ my Back to Skool enjoyment almost from the first scene, giving me some very nostalgic vibes I didn’t see coming. Obviously, this is a very tongue-in-cheek game and its story is not to be taken seriously nor logically, especially towards the end, but I actually found it refreshing to play it at a time so many games opt to go the opposite direction. It may not look the best, the mechanics will sometimes feel quite frustrating, and the game may even start feeling a bit repetitive after a certain point, but if you’re able to get past its age related problems, and particularly if you have an inclination for this niche type of game setting, Bully is something I can easily recommend. I give it a 7.5/10.

Does the classic GTA formula work without driving, guns, huge iconic worlds, or a killer licensed soundtrack? Eh, kinda.

This game is fun and I think still worth playing. “GTA but terrorising bullies” takes it quite a long way, and the main cohort of characters are plenty amusing.

Controlling Jimmy is janky as hell, but so were all the PS2-era GTA games, so as long as you go in knowing what to expect, you should be fine. The selection of weapons is fun, although if you level up a bit and learn some extended combos you can eventually get through any fight by basically just mashing X.

The story ranges from well-written to fairly terrible, but it remains entertaining overall. It feels as if there were large cuts though, particularly towards the end. Characters drop into the story late on with no real introduction, and the ending itself kinda seems like how a kid with a penchant for ridiculous exaggeration would describe events.

The world is not a lot of fun to be in. The school itself is pretty cool, though small in scale. The town areas are a drag both visually and in terms of getting around, though in all honesty there is very little reason to explore unless you’re going for collectibles. I do appreciate the kinda dreamlike quality to it all though. I don’t believe the year it’s set in is ever given explicitly, but it’s one of those worlds where it could just as easily be 1980 as 2005. Everything just feels slightly off—I’m not sure if that’s deliberate but it works.

The soundtrack deserves a special mention because it’s all over the place. Harry Potter whimsy to surf rock cutaways to something right out of Metal Gear Solid. It’s chaos, I love it.