Bully

"A dog eat dog world indeed, my friend"

Canis Canem Edit sounds much more fancy than Bully, dont it? It actually means something too. Time for you latin lesson; it actually means "Dog eat Dog". It actually fits the game much more than mere "Bully", since even though the game is more or less about bullies, in the bigger perspective it is also about much more... ok, I'll stop the lecture now, I'm getting bored.

Story: 9
This really does deserve the niner, since its almost perfectly created. From the classic 5 chapters (a la Macbeth and others), to the modern, i.e. trying to be the most popular.

The games main character, the kid you play, is called Jimmy Hopkins. In the opening scene it is revealed that he is being delivered to a new school by his inattentive mother and step-father. Apparently Jimmy has been expelled from many other schools (so you'll play as a "bad boy" character, eh?).

First, you start to and make new friends... and slowly you end up solving problems for everybody and kicking arse while doing so.
As mentioned earlier, the story spans over 5 chapters, but despair not, like the R* tradition you WILL get a chance to just mill about in a non-story related Chapter (6... if you couldnt figure it out).

Anyway, not much else to say without spoiling it... its good, just trust me.

Graphics: 8
Ok man, you probably seen the trailer of this game and the whole deal, right? The graphics do actually look a bit crude compared to say GoW and such but this is the Ps2 were talking about here, eh? For the Ps2 this is quite nice work.
The nice graphics are then applied to a whole town, which is quite big in itself y'kno?

The cutscenes use the in-game graphics so dont expect any Final Fantasy types here.

But, as you can see from the grade, the graphics arent all top-notch. The game suffers from a few, quite bad, graphical glitches such as some characters going into "seizures" and some very weird stuff happening all together. Not perfect, but work-able.

Audio: 9
Amazing, simply amazing man. As this is a R* game, you obviously expect a high-end dialogue with excellent voice acting accompanied by subtle, yet tantalizing background music yes? Yeah well its all there.

The voices are kickass. They fit the characters very very correctly, with the slightly skizo voice of Gary or even the uptight voice of the secretary, all personalities included. Sometimes even swear words are used, so if you dont like that, be warned.

The background music is quite sexy too, reminding slightly of Elfman, which is a good thing. The other small noises are also very decent, such as a potato hitting a body makes a very realistic noise just like the scream of pain when you kick a groin. Crude, but satisfying, no?

Gameplay: 10
You wouldnt expect bad gameplay from R* would you (it may seem obvious now, but I quite enjoy R* games)?

Off the bat, the game is basically a multitude of mini-games all crammed into one. You got your basic "press the button at the right time" games, the boxing games, the racing games, the tetris'ish games, the poo-flinging monkey games (didnt expect that, didya?), the sumo games.... tons man.

These games are played in arcade machines, in official races and in classes. You have 5 classes and you get a mini-game for each, that you need to complete to pass. Small games that actually relate to the subject, such as word puzzles in English class and so on.

The main game is all about fighting though. The game is built quite simple but the way you play it can become quite complex. A huge number of combos can be built with only one button. Then comes in the wedgies, locker stuffings, ass pinching...

The game also contains items to use such a skateboards (goes fast), firecrackers, spudguns, stink bombs... your usual prankster items.

You get to use all that stuff on students or teachers or town people. You'll get in trouble for fighting but sometimes you just gotta fight. Some kids will pick fights with you because your "rating" with them is low. The school has many clicks, each will either hate you or love or dont care about you, depending on the story.

There is driving in this game though, so dont be expecting GTA. You only ride bikes or scooters. Your still underage, remember?

Anyway, dont be overvhelmed by the sheer amount of things to do in this game because its all quite fun. And very well made.

Overall
I think this is one the best games for the Ps2 ever made, and it marks the slow end of the console in a very "bang'ish" way.
If you like to have fun playing games, buy this. If you dont like games, pass this one up.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/08/07