Bully is another classic from rockstar games. Known for such games as the grand thief auto series, Bully follows many of the same missions but is set within a school yard. As such there is no firearms, no killing and some new interesting side lines.
Of unique interest is the best way to get your health increased to twice its normal leve .... You kiss - snog is probably a better description.
You can also increase your health in bully by drinking sodas.
Along with the boarding school theme you can get a number of weapons of a juvenile nature - including stink bombs, sling shots, spud guns, bottle rocket gun, itching powder, fire crackers, bags of marbles, eggs, paint cans and of course your own fists. This is where the Nintendo Wii takes bully to a new level over and above what other consoles can offer. You want to box on with someone - you box on, trust me you can get quite a workout. Especially when you fight in the preppies boxing ring for 16 rounds!!!.
You can learn a number of moves to increase your fighting abilities, including leg sweeps, head butts and the classic knee to the groin (having suffered this particular move in real life I am intimately acquainted with the damage and pain this can cause), so much better to leave this type of behavior in the virtual world.
Their are 87 missions that I've completed, most follow a central story line between you the main character - James (Jimmy) Hopkins and Gary Smith - a deeply disturbed young man and Pete your wimpy side kick!
Other characters in Bully include the Preps (yuppies), Jocks (large sporting types), the bullies (white shirt and jeans), the greasers (50's rejects), Nerds (if you don't know what a nerd is, its likely you are one), along with little kids, the bigger girls (the large chested ones ;), as well as the prefects (the ones who bust you and slam you to the ground and drag you off to the principals office), and the teachers. In town are police, adults, students and assorted losers.
As with most rock star games, bully has a number of maps that slowly open up to you as the game progresses. The main town, the upper class suburbs, the slums, and more industrial slums. Running all around this huge town would take ages, thankfully there are a number of other transport options including your always handy skateboard (and the back to the future ride hitch), bicycles, scooters, and the go kart. Once you have the go kart - this will be the only way you well choose to get around town as it is lighting fast. Get this by winning all the go kart races - it waits for you outside the front of the shop near you personal garage.
Bully has a number of 'collectibles', including destroying gnomes, collecting cards, rubber bands (which gets you a new rubber band ball weapon when you have them all). There is one difficult rubber band on top of a roof in town with no ladder to get there - you can't jump the gap from the neighboring roof top - you need to jump while on your skate board - a tricky maneuver, but I got it on the third go. Also 6 radios are collectible and you can trade them to a vagrant to teach you fighting moves.
The only annoying thing with the Wii version of the game is the camera control in some missions, which can be very tricky - you need to push the Wii remote hard at the screen and then aim it carefully - the designers could have used more sensible options to direct your camera - the camera is needed to complete some missions and take year book photos - or just happy snaps of your game.
Bully is set in a boarding school so of course you have CLASSES - with a variety of teachers you probably met some time during your school career - if somewhat over dramatized. The classes include art, english, chemistry, maths, shop, music, gym, photography, biology and geography.
English is the hardest and Maths is no knock over either - calculate fast or miss out.
Gym is great to learn new fighting moves.
Music, art and photography are about as pointless as they are in 'real' school. Photography at least gets you a camera.
Shop gets you a varying progression of better and better BMX bicycles.
Chemistry enables you to cook up itching powder, stink bombs and fire crackers in your dorm room.
The main buildings in the school are the boys and girls dorms, the main school building - classrooms, cafeteria and principals office; the gym, the shop, the library, Harington house, the stadium and sports field and the observatory. Its easy to get around on skateboard - though jumping both sets of stairs to the main building requires pin point timing - but is possible.
Some interesting school asides - playing dodgeball, pulling the fire alarms, kicking the soccer ball again the wall and just making a nuisance of yourselves. You can hide from authority figures in bins, lockers and porta-loos until your heat level cools down - it you can't find one - just run, skate or drive away. Don't try to take on the prefects - I've managed to knock one out, so I tried the spud gun - I got two but the other two prefects nailed me.
Bully is a great game - all the rock star brilliance without the blood.
Other areas of interest - the carnival - lots of fun games, rides and ability to earn tickets. The seaside and wharf - to get that last gnome on the barge don't forget to use your super slingshot. The mental asylum, the clothing shops, tattoo 'van', barber shops, theater and comic shops, BMX track.
You can even pick up odd jobs and earn money making food deliveries, paper round and mowing lawns. You will need the cash to buy all the clothes to get 100% completion.
My only complaint about the game is the main story finishes long before you complete 100% and the world it so huge it takes ages to 'collect' everything. Occasionally the Wii controls - particularly in chemistry and shop are hard to "copy" exactly - you will see what I mean.
The best part of bully - boxing on, causing mayhem and kissing the girls. Funnest part - watching your girlfriends pull each others hairs, least funny part - being kneed in the groin by an upset girlfriend - both can occur when your caught out playing the field.
I recommend Bully as a must have game for your Wii collection.
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