So after a day of feeling the signs of aging, e.i. hurting my neck from rocking out to hard and putting my nose to the grindstone working today, I came home to a package on my porch. Already knowing what was in the package, I brought it inside, and with boyish glee, tore it apart. Inside was this:
The
Bully media kit! Some genius marketing as usual from Rockstar Games. So you understand the concept behind what i got, you have to get the premise of the game first. Basically, you are a troubled teen enrolled in the "Bullworth Academy" against your will, and being the "villian" in the game, you do everything from beating up kids, to playing pranks, to actually going to class, so that you can fit in. In the envelope were 2 "Bully" logo stickers, and 2 that say "My child was expelled from the Bullworth Academy". Done before, but brilliant. But the real sell for me was "Whipper Snappers"... you know, those snappers that you throw at the ground and they pop. These aren't the sissy kind either, these are the hardcore, gun shot sounding kind. The perfect kind for causing trouble. Complete with packaging directed toward the game. Rockstar has a great team working on their package design as well... er, they either commission or have some talented illustrators on staff at least. The cover art features vector-like illustrations of the main character Jim and Principle with a comic strip set back tone-on-tone in the background. Beautiful. When you flip the box over... everything kinda falls apart, and it looks like they just threw it together just to get it on the shelves.
Because I had both versions just released for the game, i figured it was only my duty to play a couple hours on both of them and right up a quick review. All together you can see a lot of similarities to the infamous Grand Theft Auto series done by Rockstar Games [New York]. Basically, this was Rockstar's solution for anyone who doesn't make it into the M rating (18+), but is "mature" enough for the T Rating (13+).
Because this was originally on PS2, this "Scholarship Edition" is basically a port to the next-gen consoles (ew, sorry that was totally gamer speak). Yeah, they updated the graphics, and added some new stuff, but i'm sure it's pretty much the same. The 360 version looks pretty good. Especially in HD. After playing it on the Wii, i was actually able to see a noticeable difference. On both versions, you see that familiar illustrated loading screen seen in GTA (as i mentioned from the cover). Trading in your guns for slingshots, you run around campus instead of a city, but basically the same idea — with no vehicles to drive (sorry). And of course, a that offbeat sense of humor that Rockstar games seem to have. But this is all fun stuff, so i didn't see a problem. So the Wii version, may look like trash (like the PS2) when you play it, but the controls make up for it. The studio did a good job translating the controls to the Wii to make it work as close to real life as the could. When you make a right handed punch you punch with your right, left, left, etc. I couldn't contain myself from laughing the first time i did it.
My recommendation is, if you have both the 360 and the Wii, buy it from the Wii. It's much more fun, and the graphics aren't THAT much worse... i guess.
Sorry if this was totally boring for people who don't enjoy video games.
-Dusel
Labels: 360, design, marketing, review, Wii
