Bully Broadsides Reviewer with Bona Fide Fun

Yeah, I'm talking about that game you've heard about on the news recently - the one with boys kissing boys, kids fighting each other and kids being mean to each other.

Not only do I think it's great, I think it's a touching story.

Don't get me wrong, I started out ready to not like this game. Rockstar Games announced they were doing a free-roaming game that put players into the shoes of a prep school bully, game-violence critics went nuts, and I rolled my eyes.

I love the Grand Theft Auto, Rockstar's other line-crossing franchise, but found the latest install-ment - Liberty City Stories on PSP - a little bit stale.

The announcement of this GTA, Jr. with similar controls really didn't grab me.

October rolled around, Bully hit stores shelves, and I looked the other way. I read about it, listened to parents flip out about it but never thought about picking it up.

Then Rockstar sent it to me.

I popped the disc into my PlayStation 2, and was blown away.

I expected Jimmy Hopkins, our 15-year-old centerpiece, to be a jerk for the sake of being a jerk, but with the game's opening cinematic we're introduced to a kid with dirt bag parents who is just trying to survive. In the game he's sticking up for pipsqueaks, running errands for nerds and kissing the so-cially inept girls.

Jimmy's a hero, not a villain.

The new kid at Bullworth Academy, Jimmy has to deal with every subset of his school trying to pick a fight with him, while he balances academics, fun and mischief.

Although Bully's control scheme screams GTA, developers have installed some new goodies that make the whole thing seems fresh. When an opponent is worn down to his or her last legs, Jimmy can humiliate his foe with nuggies, Indian burns and spit. When a bully is too much for the youngin' to deal with, Jimmy can apologize and try to get off. Rather than pull a GTA and try out a new paint job to ditch authorities, Jimmy hides in a trash can.

Gone are GTA's uzis and chainsaws, here our man uses stinkbombs and a slingshot. Villains don't end up in a pool of blood, but instead lay on the ground whimpering - an important distinction.

For all the violence hoopla this game drummed up - some called it a Columbine simulator - the lack of blood makes the fights in Bully tamer than what most network-teen TV shows.

Although crude humor, sexual themes and violence do earn this game a Teen rating, I can guarantee kids are exposed to worse things day after day. Hearing a nerd stutter and ask "Have you, y'know, ever done it?" doesn't really instill fear in most parents.

Gameplay is made up of fetch and grab missions for Jimmy, dodging prefects and attending class.

Class.

Yeah, it made me do a double take too, but it's not as lame as you might think. Jimmy goes to chemistry class, you press the corresponding buttons as they scroll by on the screen, and Jimmy learns to make his own stinkbombs. The process repeats itself with a handful of classes and exercises that are fun and help expand Jimmy's hell-raising capabilities.

The town of Bullworth is sprawling and provides a fun distraction when you're stuck on one of the plethora of missions Jimmy has in front of him. Side quests, secrets and hidden objects make sure Bully will see more playtime than most of this fall's releases.

In short, this game is good, and I still can't get over how good it is. It's not every day that a title takes me, a nerdburglar, by surprise, but Bully did and is worth picking up for anyone who is looking for a fun, intricate gaming experience.

Or wants to wail on some jocks.