Usually when a game gets ported to a superior platform, all of the flaws from the original game pop up and ruin the experience. However, when Rockstar and Mad Doc software took Bully (originally a Playstation 2 game) and brought it to the Xbox 360, they took significant steps to enhance the game to make it worthy of the next-gen platform. They optimized the controls for the Xbox 360, updated the graphics and physics and added a ton of new content to the game in the form of new missions, classes and other goodies. These enhancements don’t change the core gameplay but rather make the game palpable for those who want to play it on the Xbox 360.

The storyline of Bully: Scholarship Edition (Bully: SE) is centered on 15 year-old Jimmy Hopkins, who is dumped at Bullworth Academy by his mom and told to fend for himself. He must be navigated through minefields of mini-games designed to test your patience and gaming skills. The storyline is fairly liner as you cannot advance through the chapters until certain missions and errands have been completed. While the main plot is highly structured, the open world nature of the game allows you to move about at your own pace so you can stop and smell the virtual roses if you care to.

The gameplay is focued on the missions, mini-games and activities that are littered throughout the grounds of Bullworth Academy and the surrounding town. It seems as if there is always something to do, someone to see or someone that needs their butt kicked. Despite what the title suggests, Jimmy Hopkins is not a bully, but rather a kid is constantly forced to defend himself.

Most people will find themselves jumping into the campaign mode as this is where the meat of the game lies. After meeting the principal and his assistant (who looks somewhat like Paige Davis of Trading Spaces), the storyline is set and players can immediately start feeling there way around the campus in the first mission, which is finding Jimmy’s dorm room.

Unfortunately, not more than 20 minutes into the game, I started to experience serious issues with the framerate and the game locked up on me a couple of times. The next day, Rockstar acknowledged the issue and went about producing a patch to correct the issue. I decided to wait for the patch before continuing with my review. This really wasn’t a necessity, as I could have just saved more frequently to thwart the freezing. It took a couple of weeks, but finally an auto-update came when I logged in, which definitely corrected the freezing issues, and appears to have made the game run much smoother. While it is never a good thing for a new release to have such issues out of the box, Rockstar and Mad Doc need to be commended for confronting the issue head-on and getting a patch readied quickly. That is a lot better than the majority of publishers/developers have done over the years.



Once I was back on track with a patched game, I proceeded to continue down the storyline, trying to complete the classes and side missions as I worked my way through the Chapters. For those that played Bully on the Playstation 2, it will be hard not to notice all the new additions to the game. No less than eight new missions, four new classes and several new characters have been salted in across the board. These additions, along with what appears to be a new physics engine and updated graphics, take Bully: Scholarship Edition to a level above and beyond the original Bully.

The game controls are pretty straight forward and use most of the buttons on the Xbox 360’s controller. When not in a specific side mission or mini game, every button and control are available to move Jimmy around, select his options and interact with the environment. However, the min...