Bully: Anniversary Edition Releases Today for Mobile
By Jasmine Henry 06 December 2016
Rockstar Games releases Bully: Anniversary Edition on iOS and Android devices, improving the original game’s graphics and introducing the ‘Friend Challenges’ multiplayer mode.
Those who love Rockstar Games’ highly controversial open-world adventure, Bully, have already been given a chance to replay it this year as the game was released on PS4. But Rockstar isn’t done with letting fans rule the school (and bunk off class) as bad boy Jimmy Hopkins as the company has now released the game on iOS and Android.
The iOS and Android version of the game, called Bully: Anniversary Edition, has been released to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the original PS2 version. Costing $6.99, the Anniversary Edition of the game “includes everything” from the Bully: Scholarship Edition (an updated version of the original which also added new missions) along with support for “high-resolution displays,” “enhanced graphics” and “improved lighting an textures. Rockstar also says that the game’s controls have been redesigned for mobile devices, though, the game does offer physical controller support.
Additionally, this mobile re-release of Bully introduces a multiplayer mode called”friend challenges.” Friend challenges, explains Rockstar, are “head-to-head classroom and arcade style mini-games.” Some of these mini-games include the biology-class classic of frog dissection and a game where players help a flying squirrel to take out his foes using acorns (in typical Rockstar fashion, this mini-game is called ‘Nut Shots.’)
While many will welcome any excuse to replay Jimmy’s adventures at Bullworth Academy, especially as they can now play the game on the go, many will be asking why Rockstar isn’t just focusing all of its efforts on making Bully 2. Rockstar Games co-founder Dan House has said that he ‘believes’ in Bully 2, while (Rockstar Games parent company) Take-Two has also filed for several Bully trademarks in recent years. Each of these stories inspired much enthusiasm and hope for a sequel amongst Bully fans, who are chomping at the bit to cause a ruckus as Jimmy Hopkins once more.
One possibility, though, is that Rockstar is working on Bully 2 and that this mobile re-release isn’t just an excuse to celebrate the first game’s birthday. Although it’s clear that fans are eager for Bully 2, Rockstar may be using this mobile re-release of the original game to test the waters. Presumably if Rockstar tallies up the sales of the Bully PS4 release as well as the iOS and Android debut and sees a number that it likes, the developer will have proof that the Bully universe still has some legs even a decade on and that developing Bully 2 makes sense financially, and not just to please the fans.
