Bully: Anniversary Edition review - The best days of Rockstar's life?

For Rockstar, Bully is a bit of a cult classic. It still holds a special place in a lot of people's hearts, but compared to the likes of GTA and Red Dead, it doesn't have the same sort of gravitas.

But there's still an excellent game here. It's well written, well acted, and shows the panache and spirit that Rockstar has become known for.

It's a little rough around the edges, as you'd expect from a game of this age, but it's still an intriguing and impressive glimpse back at the history of one of the world's foremost devs.

The game tells the story of a student at Bullworth Academy. He's already troubled, he's dumped there by his mum and her new husband, and then he's basically left to fend for himself.

And that's where you come in. Punching, stealing, pranking, and chasing your way through the school-life of a boy with a severely shaved head and an impressive problem with authority.

The controls have moved onto touchscreen pretty well. You've got a stick on the left to move about and a stick on the right to look around. A few context sensitive buttons sit in the right hand corner, and swipes let you pick your weapons.

The inherent flatness of the game means you're never that worried about looking up or down, and an auto-targeting system keeps most of the fiddling out of your way,

And that leaves you to get to grips with the meat of the story. There's a big school to explore as well, and in traditional Rockstar fashion you can get lost in the side-quests and things to find.

There's violence here, but it's smart and reasonably well balanced. It might not have the nuances of more modern third person combat, but it's still meaty enough that you don't sigh when someone starts a scrap.

Everything is still in good shape after all this time, and the game handles better than an awful lot of third person adventures that have been designed from the ground up for mobile.

There are a few niggles here and there, but nothing that's going to spoil your enjoyment of what is a brilliantly put together game.

There's just something about Bully that makes it a joy to play. Whether it's the sarcastic quips of your schoolmates, the mini-games that make up your school day, or the cast of slightly demented characters you have to deal with.

If you've never played this gem from the archives then mobile is a great place to start. This is a slick, well polished port that you're only going to be too happy to lose hours of your life in.