Grand Theft Auto gone Old School in Bullworth Academy, in a school year you will wish didn't end so quickly.
Right off the bat your found laying down on the back seat in a car, you're mother tells you to say something, then you bark out insults to you're NEW STEP FATHER. You're then dumped off at one of the worst schools in northern America, Bullworth Academy. You’re then met by a mental patient called Gary; he's kind of off his meds and is obsessed with taking over the school and being the king of Bullworth Academy. On your way to power you get to learn about lock picking, fighting, kissing girls and being a real pain in the neck and learn the new meaning of truancy.
Since you're in school you have to attend class, class starts at 9:00am and 1:00am, classes come in five parts, divided into mini-games: English is a word scramble game, you have to make as much words as possible in the time limit; succeed, you get to talk more effectively to avoid beat downs, and intimidate your foe. Chemistry is a rhythm game where you have to hit the right button in order to make you're little project; this gives you stink bombs, itching powder and firecrackers, and a chem. Set in your dorm room. Shop is a button match game, rotate the left analogue stick in the desired direction to apply wheels to the bike, spin the peddle, hammer the face buttons to spill oil on the chains and screw in BMX peds to the wheels; this gives you a better BMX bike in you're garage. Photography is what you'd expect, taking pictures, the easiest of the classes, take pictures of students, hobos and locations to win; this gives you more room in your photo album, colored photos and a yearbook. Art is a game where you use the paint brush to make squares to make a picture of you're Art teacher Miss Phillips, avoid erasers and exploders to win; this gives you more health when kissing girls by a quarter each time until you hit 100%! Gym is learning new wrestling moves, follow instructions to win, and play dodge ball; this gives you new moves to try out and gives you improved accuracy when using you're slingshot. All of these are skippable, but are very rewarding.
As you'd expect, there's a lot to do around campus, in and out. Once the gates are open you can explore Bullworth Town! Go into clothes stores and get out of uniform to hit sweaters and hoodies and zip-ups. Purchase chocolates and flowers to impress girls, or go to comic stores and drop in some virtual quarters for some more mini-game madness in arcade machines. There's also a Carnival to explore, play games inside there. Get some more cash by mowing lawns and doing paper routes, it's all possible in Bullworth. Bullworth the whole map is big enough to fill one of the three cities in San Andreas' strolling mega map that was San Andreas. As is San Andreas, Bullworth is full of people, the hallways of the Academy are full with students waltzing around, Jocks picking on Nerds, Preppies goes gossiping, and Greasers fixing everything to be repaired. No two people are the same, anywhere.
Bullworth's students are divided into factions. The Nerds, Jocks, Preppies, Greasers and the generic Bullies. The Nerds are what you'd expect, very nerdy, wearing glasses carrying books and avoiding every Jock in sight, you would rarely find a Nerd by the Gym, but mostly find one at the Library. The Jocks are the toughest, very big dumb and strong guys, steer clear or be prepared to buy another pair of underwear. The Preppies are the posh people, packing English accents and blue Aquaberry shirts and sweaters. Don't be fooled because they're posh, they can rumble with the best of them, pay a visit to Harrington House to square off a couple. The Greasers are leather jacket hard students, the auto shops are their turf, tough but they hang at a place littered with weapons, easy pickings then. The Bullies are the first outfit you encounter, white polo shirt wearing thugs, led by not the brightest Russell, they're tough but easy to overcome.
Canis Canem Edit keeps an exact update on what you've done, from everything from talking to people, kissing girls, girls harassed and bikes stolen, it's all very fun when you remember the Greaser you threw through a new car window, the Preppy you humiliated in front his friends, and the Nerd you wedgied the day before. Always look back, there's always something to do and keep doing to keep you busy.
Those who are familiar with Rockstar's other brawler, The Warriors, will feel right at home with the combat here. There's a punch button, grapple button and a humiliation button, which all works very well, never will you find that fighting is too easy, or too tough, it's all very fair. Weapons help, so does your items and gizmos, long range weapons like snowball and firecracker guns are helpful, stink bombs are perfect for slowing down your opponent and firecrackers are great for the instant knockout. Marbles are hilariously funny to watch the Prefect trip over head over heels from marbles.
Overall, Canis Canem Edit (Bully) is a great game, it's nice that Rockstar are doing something with the free-roaming formula, that so many other game developers tried to imitate, if your after a quality game and don't mind having to go through another brain bruising school year filled with bullies and nerds, Canis Canem Edit is exactly that.