The long-awaited remaster of Red Dead Redemption finally rode into town in 2025, and it’s been nothing short of a barn burner. With silky-smooth 4K visuals at 60 frames per second, snappy controls, and all the dusty atmosphere of the original intact, the port has become a golden oldie for a new generation of gunslingers. Critics have piled on the praise, and sales have shot through the roof—a clear sign that Rockstar’s back catalog is a veritable gold mine. But while John Marston is soaking up the spotlight, an equally deserving title continues to languish in the shadows. Let’s cut to the chase: it’s Bully that truly deserves the remaster treatment, and the clock is ticking.

Rockstar Games’ recent track record paints a pretty clear picture. After the catastrophic launch of the GTA Trilogy: Definitive Edition in 2021, the studio went back to the drawing board. The remasters of the first two Max Payne titles, currently in the oven at Remedy with Rockstar footing the bill, are being handled with kid gloves. Then came the Red Dead Redemption remaster, a low-hanging fruit that capitalized on the colossal success of Red Dead Redemption 2. With GTA 6 finally hitting shelves in late 2025 and still dominating the charts, Rockstar is sitting on a mountain of cash. Yet, one of its most inventive and endearing IPs—Bully—has been left out in the cold, collecting dust like a forgotten textbook in a high school locker. It’s a crying shame, because Bully is the very definition of a cult classic that could shine brighter than ever on modern hardware.

For those who weren’t around in 2006, Bully (known as Canis Canem Edit in the UK) was cheekily branded “GTA: Boarding School” by the press. The comparison isn’t far off the mark. Built on the same engine that powered GTA: San Andreas, Bully took Rockstar’s open-world prowess and dropped it into Bullworth Academy, a microcosm of teenage angst and absurdity. You play as Jimmy Hopkins, a wise-cracking misfit who has to navigate the treacherous social cliques—jocks, nerds, greasers, preppies—while dodging prefects and surviving classes that were essentially a string of whacky minigames. Ace a chemistry class? You unlock stink bombs. Nail an English test? You get a better apology to sweet-talk a teacher. It was a masterclass in blending satire with genuine gameplay innovation.

What truly set Bully apart from its GTA cousins was its tonal tightrope walk. Instead of racking up a body count, Jimmy’s antics involved whoopee cushions, bottle rockets, and the occasional fist fight. Get caught skipping class or breaking curfew, and you’d be hauled back to campus by cops or prefects. Too many infractions? No “busted” or “wasted” screen here. Instead, Jimmy was forced to mow the football field on a sluggish ride-on lawnmower or shovel snow—a brilliantly frustrating punishment designed to make players think twice. It’s the kind of gentle chaos that modern audiences, who’ve gobbled up titles like PowerWash Simulator, would absolutely eat up. And let’s not forget the day-night cycle that had Jimmy passing out from exhaustion at 2 a.m., a feature that added a layer of strategy and stealth rarely seen in sandbox games.

Under the hood, however, Bully is a technical train wreck on anything beyond the original PS2. The Scholarship Edition that landed on Xbox 360 and PC in 2008 was supposed to be the definitive version, packing visual upgrades and new classes. Instead, it was plagued by crashes and glitches that only got worse with time. When Windows 10 rolled around in 2015, the PC port became borderline unplayable without a fan-made patch. Even playing it on Xbox backward compatibility can be a roll of the dice. This stands in stark contrast to the Red Dead Redemption remaster, which runs like a dream across PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. RDR earned its refresh because it was stuck on aging hardware; Bully needs one because its best version is held together by duct tape and prayers.

The real kicker? Rockstar once had Bully 2 in the pipeline, but it got the axe some time between 2010 and 2013. Leaked details suggested a game that would have borrowed the Honor system from Red Dead Redemption, giving NPCs long-term memories of Jimmy’s actions. Imagine a schoolyard where picking on a nerd one week leads to a grudge-fueled ambush the next. It was a tantalizing vision, but Rockstar apparently shifted every last resource toward GTA V, Red Dead Redemption 2, and now GTA 6. A mobile Anniversary Edition dribbled out in 2015, but that’s been about as impactful as a spitball in a hurricane. The franchise has been effectively mothballed, and that’s a bitter pill for fans who’ve been clamoring for a return to Bullworth for over a decade.

Make no mistake, Red Dead Redemption absolutely deserved its current-gen glow-up. Its sprawling frontier and gut-wrenching story remain timeless, and its absence from modern platforms was a gaping hole. But the resounding success of this remaster should be a clear signal to Rockstar that there’s a voracious appetite for revisiting other classics. The GTA Trilogy debacle can’t be the final word on remasters; it should be a lesson learned. With Bully, Rockstar has a chance to do right by a title that never got a fair shake. A faithful remake that irons out the technical kinks, polishes those satirical edges, and introduces Jimmy Hopkins to a generation that’s never heard the word “prefect” would be a surefire hit.

For now, fans can only hope that Rockstar doesn’t let Bully slip through the cracks for another console generation. The money’s on the table, the nostalgia is real, and the technology is finally ready to give Bullworth Academy the vibrant, glitch-free campus it always deserved. It’s zero hour for a Bully remaster—and if Rockstar plays its cards right, it could be the coolest comeback since summer break.