Lately I’ve been playing through Bully: Scholarship Edition for the third time. The first time I played it was the day it came out on the PS2 (or perhaps a few days before… man I miss the old days of simple video game piracy) back in 2006. I instantly fell in love with it. I was already a big fan of Rockstar’s sandbox games which seemed to get better every time, and this game quickly became my favourite of the bunch. It had my two favourite modes of transportation from the Grand Theft Auto series; bicycles and go-karts, along with some fun game play and an amazing soundtrack. I still listen to this soundtrack regularly, if you’re interested most of it is up on youtube.

When the game was re-released for the xbox 360 I got a copy and decided to finally get 100% completion (never quite got it on the PS2 I don’t think). The game had other plans, and I got stuck with 99.9% and no way to get the last point. If you’ve never played the game (or one like it), there are many random (nothing is REALLY random when everything is programmed, but whatever…) missions which pop up when you’re in the right place at the right time. In my game however, one of these instances refused to trigger. I got frustrated and gave up trying to get my last achievement.

I am currently 78.9% of the way to my goal. I lost my old game saves along with all my old save data when I lent my xbox to my brother. I have played a lot of games (thousands… maybe tens of thousands?), but rarely do I ever play a game twice. Even more rare is when I play it a third time. I can only think of about a dozen off the top of my head. This time I’m loving it more than the others. I’m not sure what it is about this game, but I can’t get enough of it.

Well, since I was in an arcade cabinet modeling mood the other day I decided to get imaginative (even though Roan says I’m incapable) and model something that I wish already existed (even though I’d be incapable of affording it). I present to you all my concept for a Bully arcade game. It features a slingshot controller, 1p and 2p joysticks, a beam cola dispenser, and a working bicycle for leaving Johnny Vincent and the Greasers in a trail of dust, while inadvertently getting Lola hot to dance – in her pants.

I had intended on doing a sweet rendering of this machine, but that idea got scrapped once I realized the imported images (meaning the screenshot on the display and all the graphics and logos on the cab) don’t work with Indigo. It would have been pretty sweet, but whatever. I still dig it.

There are a few more of these to come. I’ve had some spare time…