Bully: Scholarship Edition Coming to Xbox 360

Also called Canis Canem Edit (Latin for dog eat dog) in the PAL region, Bully is a third-person action adventure videogame originally released by Rockstar Vancouver for the PlayStation 2 in October 2006. Rockstar announced Bully: Scholarship Edition for the Xbox 360 and Wii in July 2007. The game will feature additional new content. A Rockstar fan site revealed the option of online play on the Xbox 360 version last July after they found the Xbox Live button on the official website.

Take-Two Interactive went to court in 2006 to ensure that its boarding school action-adventure games could be sold in US stores. This delayed multiplatform editions of the game, which started as a PS2 exclusive, for more than a year. The game was surrounded by controversy leading up to its release over fears that it would promote violence in schools. It became obvious that these fears were groundless once everyone got a chance to play it: Bully lacked much of the racy material Rockstar has become known for with its Grand Theft Auto series.

Although there is some uncertainty as to the release date some details on the new version of Bully are starting to surface. According to Rockstar’s press release,

Bully: Scholarship Edition takes place in the fictional New England boarding school of Bullworth Academy, and tells the story of 15-year-old Jimmy Hopkins as he experiences the highs and lows of adjusting to a new school. Capturing the hilarity and awkwardness of adolescence perfectly, Bully: Scholarship Edition pulls the player into its cinematic and engrossing world. Universally acclaimed upon first release, Bully: Scholarship Edition is a genre-crossing action game with a warmth and pathos that is unrivaled.

Besides the new content, it seems like there will be added achievements. New content includes four new classes, eight new missions, new items, more wardrobe choices, two-player mini-games, and new awards. It’s good to see Rockstar making an attempt to develop and add to their already great game unlike so many other publishers who seem to be content with re-releasing the same games a year or two later on another system with no extras.

Both the Wii and the Xbox 360 versions will preserve the humor and deep gameplay of the previously released PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system title. Bully received a faultless “10/10” from Electronic Gaming Monthly and 1up.com and was heralded as “a great, well-crafted action game that has one of the best senses of humor around” by IGN.com.

It’s no surprise for a game with an award-winning script to get a next-gen facelift. Rockstar has scheduled the release of both versions of Bully: Scholarship Edition for March 4 in the US and March 7 in the UK. The Wii and Xbox 360 versions of the game will retail for US$49.99 each.