Bully should be studied as peak of what makes a video game fun. Bully takes every element unique to video games and merges them into one cohesive experience that actually utilizes the simulation aspects of games to make it greater than a simple action game or racer or platformer.

>Platforming/ Racing - the joy of a 3D platformer or a Driving game is in just moving around. While Jimmy doesn't do tons of jumping, the core ideal of "Make it fun to move around" is key to every aspect of Bully. Whether it's climbing buildings, skating, biking, or sprinting around, movement itself is a core gameplay component (an element often forgotten in modern games). This makes the world into a playground. And it feeds into the ticking clock, the faster you get from A to B the more time in the day.

>Combat - simple to pick up, difficult to master beat em' up combat augmented with tons of learnable throws, combos, moves, and then further amplified with gadgets and prank items that also have systemic impact on the NPCs (like enraging certain cliques.

>Story - every single NPC is a named, unique character with their own traits, on top of that the world is filled with larger than life characters that you hate, love, or laugh at, adding meaning and story context to every action.

>Simulation - the world is totally alive, time is ticking away and you must choose to go to classes (mini games) which almost function like an RPG where you can upgrade fighting, health, get new gadgets, etc., do side missions, or mess around with the world which all impacts your status with the various social cliques. Seasons change and the world reacts, every NPC is unique and can be bullied or seduced or befriended.

All of these elements feed back into eachother making the game a virtuous cycle where every moment is fun and rewarding. Moving, talking, fighting, doing classes, socializing... everything is interactive and every single thing you do in the game gives a reward. It's a masterpiece.

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