Bully: Anniversary Edition

Conquer Bullworth with pranks classes and clever chaos

Bully: Anniversary Edition takes Rockstar’s open-world formula to the campus quad, letting you live out a school year as Jimmy Hopkins, a scrappy troublemaker with surprising heart. Bullworth Academy is a pressure cooker of cliques, corrupt authority, and hallway politics, and the story charts Jimmy’s rise from outcast to unlikely kingpin with sharp writing that balances satire and sincerity.

Combat trades heavy firepower for schoolyard ingenuity. You lean on slingshots, firecrackers, and an arsenal of pranks, tackling missions that range from escorting besieged nerds to undercutting rival students and sneaking after curfew. The school day matters too. Classes like Chemistry, English, and Gym are presented as bite-sized minigames, and passing them unlocks new abilities and gear, making academia feel meaningfully tied to your mischief.

This edition folds in the extras from the Scholarship Edition, adding missions, characters, and additional minigames that broaden the school’s social tapestry. Visual updates give the campus a welcome facelift, with higher resolution textures, improved lighting, and particle effects that lend scenes more pop. Controls are thoughtfully considered, with context-aware touch inputs that shift to suit what you are doing, and full support for physical controllers if you prefer a traditional layout.

Not everything has aged perfectly. Fistfights and scuffles can feel a little old fashioned, lacking the snap of more modern action systems. Still, the charm is hard to deny. The cast of preps, jocks, greasers, and authority figures is memorable, the mission variety keeps the calendar lively, and the tone captures adolescent chaos without losing sight of character.

If you want an open-world adventure with a fresh setting and a wicked sense of humor, Bully: Anniversary Edition still earns top marks.

Pros:

- Distinct school-based open-world setting with meaningful classes and cliques

- Includes Scholarship Edition additions: missions, characters, and minigames

- Upgraded visuals with high-resolution textures, improved lighting, and particle effects

- Context-aware touch controls plus physical controller support

Cons:

- Combat mechanics feel a bit dated