You've got to hand it to Rockstar. I mean, think about it - how many developers out there do you really think would even attempt to make a mainstream videogame based on the life of a boarding private school buy, let alone make it a success? That's exactly what the folks at Rockstar Games did when they released Bully for the PS2 in 2006, or Canis Canem Edit as it was known in some regions. I'll admit, when it was first being talked about I was a little skeptical regarding how well it would end up working out, but those concerns proved unfounded as the game was great. A year and a half later, Rockstar are finally ready to bring Bully to more gamers with the release of  Bully: Scholarship Edition for the Xbox 360, and while veterans of the PS2 release probably won't find enough new here to warrant a look, 360 gamers who missed out the first time should listen up, pay attention, and spit that damn gum out.

For those not familiar with the original release and hence the storyline, Bully: SE follows the life of a 15 year old lad named Jimmy Hopkins. Jimmy, in what appears to be a result of his sketchy relationship with his mother and step father, is one day driven to a boarding school and dumped off so his mother can go on a year long honeymoon with her 5th husband. The boarding school where Jimmy is being sent is Bullworth Academy which, as you come to learn and experience first hand, has a well founded reputation for bullies, psychopaths, or otherwise unsavory characters across students and faculty members alike. As I'm sure you can imagine, this is a breeding ground for many crazy and peculiar moments, mostly contained within the game's host of GTA style missions which you do at your own leisure in the game's open environment.

One of the key truths to the original PS2 release of Bully was 'if you've played any recent GTA, then you'll instantly know how to play this game', and the same can be said for this Xbox 360 version. Even though this marks the first time a Rockstar game in the GTA style engine has been released natively for the Xbox 360, nothing about the game's design or structure has changed significantly, such as the button scheme, which is easy to pick up because it is much the same as GTA's. In fact, the overriding feel of GTA is present in many facets of the game beyond just the controls. Of course the big differences with Bully comes in what you do in the game, not necessarily how you do it, so while we may not be talking a 'totally built from the ground up' unique experience here, that doesn't mean this isn't a unique game.

In fact, that's probably the best single word description you can give this game - 'unique' - because there just hasn't been a game quite like it. The brilliance with Bully isn't just with its open ended nature, because that has after all been done before. Rather, the brilliance with Bully comes with how it implements its rules and boundaries around this open ended nature. Life as a school boy in a boarding school is much different than the life of a criminal freely roaming the streets of Liberty City or San Andreas - you have a curfew, a uniform, a social hierarchy to figure out and wiggle into, not to mention classes and other appointments to attend. Bully covers all these things and more, and the experience is quite different than anything you'll have experienced in a game before.

Admittedly, back when I first tried the PS2 version, I didn't take too kindly towards some of these realities Jimmy has to face. Classes, for instance, could be a real nuisance, particularly when you had storyline related missions to attend to, but you come to learn that this is all part of the game's charm. The classes themselves are best described as mini-games, and some can actually be quite challenging and varied. Bully: SE introduces a few new classes such as Music and Geography, and the idea is the more classes you attend and pass the more unlockables you gain, such as the ability to make certain items with your chemistry set, more gestures you can use on people, and other things of that nature. Of course, like most of the game's school imposed rules, classes can be skipped as you please providing you don't mind the consequences if you get caught. There may be a unique set of rules in play in this game, but more often than not the opened ended nature Rockstar are so good at recreating overrides all, so there is still plenty of freedom in Bully: SE.