Bully
(2006, PlayStation 2; 2008, Xbox 360 and Wii)
(2006, PlayStation 2; 2008, Xbox 360 and Wii)
Almost every Rockstar Games release attracts its share of controversy, but rarely have the company's critics played into its hands quite like they did with Bully. The horror, they cried, clutching their pearls. What sort of monsters would create a Columbine simulator, which is obviously what this game would be, since apparently it was set in a school of some sort? These critics didn't know what Bully was, and they certainly didn't care. They just knew that the evil people behind Grand Theft Auto were at it again.
Bully does share structural similarities with GTA, as well as that game's fascination with the underbelly of respectable society, but thematically it's more mature and thoughtful than any GTA game. It's about the soul-deadening effects of conformity, and the perils of blindly following authority. In Bully, it's not the snot-nosed kit who lights bags of his own crap on fire that's the problem, it's the entrenched administration and their lackeys in the student body. In a sense, Bully warns against following exactly the sort of people who would seek to ban a video game without even knowing what it is.
Credit also has to go to the design of Bullworth Academy, and a storyline that follows the course of a normal school year. I enjoyed the way holiday decorations went up and came down as the story progressed, and how friendships and alliances were formed and broken as the semesters went on. The school years used to seem so long while they were happening. Now I can't tell one month from the next. Bully captures that feeling of school as a battle, both literal and metaphorical. Where's the sequel?
