Preview

Bully

By Ouroboros
October 18, 2006 13:06 PM PST
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Can Rockstar capture teenage lightning in a video-game bottle? We'll find out this October.

Go HERE to watch the official bully trailer.

If you fondly look back on your formative years of primary education, Bully's premise might seem quaint to you. On the other hand, if you spent countless hours getting tortured by knuckle-dragging pongids with all the intellect of a particularly shoddy stretch of pavement, while sociopathic school administrators looked on in amusement, this upcoming slab might well offer enough catharsis to supplant more costly therapy. While originally announced for both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2005, it appears that Bully is now destined to be exclusive to the former.

The stare of a boy who's going places

Crumbling Ivory Towers

Bullworth Academy could be any of dozens of pretentious prep school dungeons across the country, populated as it is by obnoxious troublemaking cheats, snotty teachers, and blue-blooded snobs. As Jimmy Hopkins, you've been kicked out of too many schools to remember, and you're on your own for a full year at this upper-crusted homage to prison architecture while your Mom enjoys her fifth honeymoon. With his shaved head stubble, untucked shirt, and wise-ass demeanor, it seems safe to assume young Jimmy's not going after a spot on the honor roll.

The school's sign is quartered with a fist, a skull, a rat, and a snake, while the requisite Latin slogan beneath--Canis Canem Edit--translates, appropriately enough, to "dog eats dog." You won't find any gunplay in Bully as far as we can tell, but the young malcontent is armed with a nasty slingshot, and his hands and feet aren't just for decoration.

Jimmy isn't accustomed to taking injustice lying down, and his hands-on approach to problem-solving could leave more than a few wannabe teen thugs and sanctimonious authority figures on the ground. When not delivering swirlies, smacking people around, and making the odd ally, you'll have occasion to kick around a hacky sack or whip a dodgeball.