In the late 80s, Skid Row sang ‘Since I was born, they couldn’t hold me down, Another misfit kid, another burned out town.
I never played by the rules and I never really cared. My nasty reputation takes me everywhere’. Around 17 years later, Rockstar Vancouver released a game which captured the spirit of the above lyrics just as perfectly as it holds true to this day. It is almost suspicious how accurately Bully depicts the teenage goings-on of a hormone-ridden school.
Jimmy Hopkins’s case is one of a blatant juvenile delinquency combined with even more pronounced parental negligence. He’s being transferred, again, and he’s left to his own devices in a school which is a scrapheap of hoodlums and thugs. Fortunately, our protagonist isn’t a wuss and doesn’t take no shit from anyone.
Upfront, his knuckles are busy, “polishing” chins, cheeks, stomachs and scrotums of three pimple-faced scoundrels who didn’t like him showing up. Later on, we’ll get to know our way around the splendid institution, making devoted friends and sworn enemies, ruining or skyrocketing our respect from stereotypical teenage factions: nerds, preps, jocks and greasers, and accomplishing missions that range from fetching back a stolen box of chocolates belonging to a landwhale-ish peer of ours, to passing English classes.
It’s a Rockstar game, so I won’t even mention that you can use weapons and drive vehicles (adequate to our fledgling age).
Having sketched the gist of Rockstar’s most overlooked production to date, let’s explore the fascinating Teenager/Young Adult Life Simulator genre some more.
| Game | Release | Genres | Developer | Video | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Life is Strange Complete Season (Episodes 1-5) | 2015-01-29 | Adventure | DONTNOD Entertainment | |
 | Life is Strange Remastered Collection | 2022-02-01 | Adventure | Deck Nine | |
 | The Sims 4 Discover University | 2019-11-15 | Maxis | ||
 | Persona 5 Royal | 2022-10-21 | Atlus | ||
 | My Time at Portia | 2018-01-23 | Indie | Pathea Games | |
 | Night in the Woods | 2017-02-21 | Action & Shooter | Infinite Fall | |
 | Yakuza 0 | 2018-08-01 | Adventure | Ryū Ga Gotoku Studios | |
 | Hogwarts Legacy | 2023-02-10 | Avalanche Studios | ||
 | Persona 4 Golden | 2020-06-13 | Atlus | ||
 | Grand Theft Auto San Andreas | 2005-06-06 | Action & Shooter | Rockstar Games | |
 | Watch Dogs 2 | 2016-11-28 | Adventure | Ubisoft | |
 | Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc | 2016-02-18 | Adventure | Abstraction Games |
Life is Strange
| Release date: | 2015-01-29 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | DONTNOD Entertainment |
Why don’t we start on a high note, shall we?
The award-winning production from the French studio Dotnod Entertainment captures the quintessence of overall gaming awesomeness with an elusive kernel which makes the coming-of-age trope so alluring.
Marvelously penned episodic story, highly interactive environment, superbly crafted characters whose depth and psychological élan vital jarringly overshadows those we find in the real world.
All this and even more provides for unforgettable experience, as Maxine “Max” Caulfield (someone at Dotnod Entertainment is an avid fan of J.D. Salinger!) rewinds time to learn the hard way that tampering with past possibilities that have already turned into actualities taste more bittersweet than the highly ambiguous ending of Robert Frost’s poem The Road Not Taken and brain-pulverizing sensation of meta-angst found in Jaco van Dormael movie Mr. Nobody. Enough talk, go play it NOW!
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The Sims 4: Discover University
| Release date: | 2019-11-15 |
| Genre: | Simulation |
| Developer: | Maxis |
Who hasn’t heard about The Sims?
Each installment spawns at least dozen expansion and add-on packs. The very same applies to the fourth incarnation of this social simulation wonder.
Discover University is the DLC expansion pack thanks to which we explore all nooks and crannies of the uni campus existence.
Become a quintessential nerd verging on being a social pariah or a party animal playing beer pong and scoring freshmen by the thousands. The choice is yours.
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Persona 5
| Release date: | 2022-10-21 |
| Genre: | JRPG |
| Developer: | Atlus |
Hold on to your pads, for Persona 5 is going to whip your demanding preferences with visual badassery, a plot of finest quality, and an absolutely groovy soundtrack.
A high school student nicknamed Joker, expelled for preventing a crime, ends up in a new school, where he and a couple of peers form a vigilante group – Phantom Thieves of Hearts – which operates thanks to the titular superpower called Persona, to whom each member of the group awakens.
Possessing a high-fuelled combination of manga aesthetics and exuding a powerful social simulation vibes, Persona 5 feels like a movie which you can fully interact with, leaving you with one-of-a kind experience. Oh, and don’t expect NOT to get back and listen to the OST at least gazillion times after you have finished the game.
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My Time at Portia
| Release date: | 2018-01-23 |
| Genre: | Indie |
| Developer: | Pathea Games |
So here we are, having an RPG/crafting simulation game set in an idyllic postapo world full of objects from its past glory.
Plot-wise, you inherit a Workshop from you Pa and hone your crafting skills by accomplishing missions of various importance to the plot, from main ones advancing overall story as well as technological level of the titular city state, to friendship quests which are enabled only when certain social requirements are met.
Three skill trees – Battle, Gather and Social – determine how good you are at weaponizing as well as defending your priceless hands, utilizing your pragmatic nature, and having an opportunity to nourish a relationship with other Portians.
Simply put, you build things, but were we more precise, we would call My Time at Portia a simulator of artisan’s life. Yes, you may even get married at one point. MTaP stands out from the crowd with light-hearted colorful graphics and attention to detail, e.g. all characters have different voices.
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Night in the Woods
| Release date: | 2017-02-21 |
| Genre: | Action & Shooter |
| Developer: | Infinite Fall |
Eerie, Twin Peaks-like atmosphere of Possum Springs, a small town in the Rust Belt, which has definitely seen better days, isn’t the only thing that immediately steals our hearts when we are giving Night in the Woods a shot.
A whole bunch of characters, with game protagonist at the forefront, Mae Borowski – an anthropomorphized cat and a college dropout, who returns home and tries to fit in, again – only add to the exceptionally relatable character of the game, which focuses on ups and downs of contemporary young adults.
Apart from dialogues and psychological design of dramatis personae, a 2D graphics of finely toned colors and the thickening plot also deserve a proper lauding.
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Yakuza 0
| Release date: | 2018-08-01 |
| Genre: | Adventure |
| Developer: | Ryū Ga Gotoku Studios |
A prequel to the first installment of the series, Yakuza 0 is set in the late 80s Japan, the last years of its economic heyday.
The gripping story, divided into 17 chapters, where money, power and loyalty intermingle into an explosive concoction, is at the heart of the matter, and lays foundation to other key elements like the open-world setting, characters made of flesh and blood, and several fighting styles your character may utilize, to name but a few.
The game is also noteworthy of, or, rather, notorious for its brutality, so you’d better brace your faint hearts and say ‘konnichiwa’ to hair-rising finishing off moves, Mortal Kombat (light 😉 ) style.
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Hogwarts Legacy
| Release date: | 2023-02-10 |
| Genre: | RPG |
| Developer: | Avalanche Studios |
Ah, yes, you have received a letter from Hogwarts deputy headmistress – professor Weasley – and you are about to jump on the bandwagon of the wizardry world as a late bloomer.
Hogwarts Legacy is set in 1890s, amidst Goblin rebellion, a hundred years before the events from the Harry Potter OG series, and you do what every protagonist of a finely crafted video game would do in Hogwarts: explore the school with nearby grounds and have enchanting adventures, learning new spells and curses in the process.
Highly acclaimed for its breathtaking visuals and mesmerizing soundtrack, Hogwarts Legacy is an absolute must for everyone who has ever fallen in love with HP universe, as well as those who wish to scurry around the truly magical world first time in their lives.
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These are seven games that more or less resemble Bully. With their protagonists spanning from the recalcitrant punk to angsty small-town anthropomorphized cat, each title varies from the rest.
Notwithstanding, the games equip us with the possibility to experience different life paths and existential nuances, and, what’s even more important, they all are up for grabs at our marketplace.