Developer Rockstar Games is best known for its huge, in-depth open worlds, tongue-in-cheek humor, and the ability for players to do just about anything. Even Grand Theft Auto V, a game about bank heists and merciless gangs, allows players to take up yoga if that's what they really want to do.
But 15 years ago, in 2006, Rockstar released one of its most immersive games ever, Bully. Even compared to games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Bully has such an impressive amount of fun things to do, most of which are the copious amounts of minigames at players' disposal.
Lawn Mowing
Whether it's the disco in Yakuza or the Donkey Kong knock-off Red Menace in Fallout 4, there are some great minigames inside video games. But in Bully, there are tons of minigames that are endlessly replayable, starting with Lawn Mowing. Only a developer like Rockstar could make a task as menial as mowing the lawn entertaining.
Jimmy can accept offers to mow lawns for a bit of spare change, just so long as he avoids accidentally mowing down any flower patches. What's funny is that there's even a full-priced newly released video game called Lawn Mowing Simulator. But it's best served as a minigame, as though it's entertaining, there's only so much fun gamers can have mowing digital grass.
Monkey Fling
Throughout the town of Bullworth, random arcade machines can be found in stores and other buildings that players can enter. Monkey Fling is one of several arcade machines, and it can be found in two areas, as there's one in the Blue Balls Pool Hall and one inside the prize tent in The Carnival.
Monkey Fling sees the player take control of a monkey, and the objective is to loosen bananas at the top of the screen by literally flinging poo at them. It can be frustratingly tough, especially as players need to get the highest score of the game to achieve 100% completion of Bully.
Penalty Shots
Being based in a school, there are tons of different sports minigames, including a couple of soccer-based games. One of them is Keep-Ups, which simply sees the player attempt to kick the ball as many times as possible before it hits the floor. But that's one of the least interesting, and there's another that's much more entertaining.
Though it's simple, as it sees Jimmy simply trying to score goals against a classmate by kicking the ball inside a chalk outline of goalposts on a wall, Penalty Shots is one of the best minigames. What makes it so fun is the running commentary for Jimmy's opponent, who will hilariously get angry if he gets hit by the ball.
Nut Shots
Nut Shots is an arcade game and just like Monkey Fling, it can be found in the prize tent at The Carnival. Despite the title being an innuendo, Nut Shots is a fun and innocent arcade game about a squirrel. Players control the flying squirrel and have to shoot acorns at different enemies.
Unlike Monkey Fling, players don't have to get a high score to achieve 100% completion on the game, and it's just as well because Nut Shots is one of the hardest arcade machines in Bullworth. But regardless of its difficulty, it's still a lot of fun, and shooting down hornets is just as satisfying as taking down Gary in the main game.
Paper Route
As Rockstar's GTA is full of outrageous crimes, Bully largely follows suit and is very much the PG-13 version of the celebrated series. But what Bully does so well is that it makes the non-criminal activity levels so exciting and fun to play too, and Paper Route is a perfect example of that. Just like Lawn Mowing, Paper Route is another minigame that earns Jimmy some pocket money if players successfully complete it.
As Jimmy has class at specific times, players not only have to successfully deliver all of the newspapers, but they have to do it within a time limit too. Between the oncoming traffic and all the possible shortcuts in the lived-in open world, there are so many obstacles, but at the same time, so many different ways players can complete the minigame.
Future Street Racer
As players progress through the game, they are rewarded with more impressive safe houses, and one of the swankiest in the game is the beach house, and it's kitted out like a man-cave too. In the corner of the beach house is the arcade game Future Street Racer, a car racing game where the vehicles can fire missiles.
Of all the arcade games in Bully, Future Street Racer is the only one that's clearly modeled after a video game that exists in real-life. Bully might be one of the Rockstar games that fans totally forgot about, but WipEout has also been mostly forgotten about, even though it was one of the most fast-paced and exciting futuristic racing games. However, though it has long been forgotten, its legacy lives on even in Bully with Future Street Racer, which is just as addictive as the main missions.
Go-Kart Races
If there's one thing that Rockstar is best known for, it's the endless depth and detail of their open worlds. And that's why it's such a joy to race in Rockstar's games. The open world makes racing much more interesting and different from other racing games out there.
Instead of being on closed-off race tracks, the races have staggered checkpoints, and it's up to the player to figure out the best route to reach each checkpoint, and that's something that makes the Midnight Club games great. That's the same formula for the races in Bully, only instead of cars and motorbikes, they're go-karts. However, despite the downgrade, there's still such a great sense of speed.
Boxing
There are so many fun students that make up Bullworth academy's faculty, and a lot of them are surprisingly lovable, but the same can't be said for the Preppies. The Preppies are the easiest-to-hate characters in the game and the worst of the five cliques that Jimmy comes into contact with, which is why it's so much fun to box with them.
The clique owns the boxing club in Bullworth, meaning that Jimmy has to enter the ring in a tournament with them to gain the territory in the main story. But after that, Boxing becomes an available minigame for players who want to vent their frustrations with the difficulty of the main missions.
Dodgeball
With Bully being such a detailed game about school class, it often feels like a high school simulator. Players have to turn up to classes (on time, no less) and work out maths equations, fix bikes in shop class, and spell difficult words in English.
Rockstar manages to make even those captivating, but the best class of all of them is gym, where Jimmy is forced to play Dodgeball with his classmates. The violent game sees Jimmy throwing balls at his allies and enemies alike, and they all again get angry when they're hit. There are also words of motivation coming from Mr. Burton, the creepy gym teacher and one of the best characters in Bully.
ConSumo
Whether it's the western towns in Red Dead Redemption, the modern satirical metropolises of Grand Theft Auto, or the streetlamp-lit nighttime of Midnight Club, Rockstar is the unrivaled benchmark for open worlds. And despite Bully having one of the most exemplary open worlds and a brilliantly lived-in aesthetic, players will spend most of their time inside the tiny Dragon's Wing Comics comic book store playing ConSumo.
ConSumo sees players take control of a sumo wrestler, and they have to collect food like chicken wings and sushi in order to get bigger. At the same time, they must avoid bad foods like rotten fish bones, which will kill them. It's so addictive and it'll distract fans from the main objective for hours.