Bully is a video game that came out in 2006, and it's one of the first video games I remember playing. In the game you are a 15 year old boy named Jimmy Hopkins who was put in a crumbling prep school by his mom and her boyfriend.
Fig 1.1: Poster for Bully: Scholarship Edition.
You have to stand up to bullies, bad authority figures, and sometimes bully other people, and basically complete missions until you rule the school. But 9 year-old Chahd's favorite part was kissing boys and girls and make them fight for Jimmy, for some reason...
Oh, and you also have mandatory classes to attend, but they're fun, so whatever.
Fig 1.2: Jimmy Hopkins in Music class.
For the longest time, this has been one of my favorite games of all time. But I wasn't sure whether it was nostalgia speaking or if the game is still works today, so I did what any nostalgia junky would do and I downloaded it again.
Fig 1.3: Jimmy Hopkins on a date.
The story isn't too deep and doesn't take itself too seriously, I think that Rockstar Games has perfected the funny/sentimental story balance (looking at you RDR2). and it definitely shows up in its earliest games, one of which, Bully.
The world building is quite nice, in the first chapter you are limited to the school, but you slowly unlock the rest of Bullworth and interact with different people, aside from the usual students and prefects.
I wish rockstar would put out a remake or a remastered version for the newer consoles but that's just wishful thinking, and to be fair - the game does hold up pretty well, and the mods are a great way to still be able to play it in 2026. Thank you developers y'all are cool as hell.
13th March 2026Red Dead Redemption 2