Bully, Rockstar Games’ 2006 open-world game set at a boarding school, is getting another look this year as it hits 20. Two decades on, it still feels like one of the studio’s oddest wins, and one of the clearest cases of a sequel that should’ve happened but never did.
Made by Rockstar Vancouver and released as Canis Canem Edit in PAL territories, Bully puts you in Jimmy Hopkins’ shoes at Bullworth Academy, where cliques, crooked teachers, prefects, and prank-heavy missions swap out Grand Theft Auto’s gang wars for bikes, skateboards, scooters, slingshots, stink bombs, marbles, and bats. It landed an 87 Metascore on Metacritic and sold more than 1.5 million copies, according to Take-Two.
Before release, some critics worried Bully would glorify bullying. What players actually got was a lighter, more satirical game where Jimmy Hopkins often ends up sticking up for weaker students, which helps explain why so many fans think it has held up better than anyone expected.
If you tend to like Rockstar when it gets a little weirder, Bully is still an easy one to recommend, especially since Bully 2 reportedly made it into early development and even reached a playable slice sometime between 2009 and 2013, according to VGC, before Rockstar’s attention shifted to Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne 3, Grand Theft Auto V, and later Grand Theft Auto VI.
You can still pick up the 2008 Scholarship Edition or the 2016 Anniversary Edition, and you can play Bully on modern PlayStation platforms or through Rockstar Games’ GTA+ subscription. Fan interest hasn’t really gone away, either, with leaks, Easter eggs, and remake attempts keeping it in circulation.
Author: Jesús Bosque
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