5 Great Games to Gear You Up for School

Ugh, I know the feeling. Sure, maybe it’s been a while since I’ve had to sit through a homeroom and enjoyed the awkwardness of communal lunch, but those memories don’t quickly fade. In fact, when it’s that time for school to start again, I find myself booting up certain games to help diminish the unwanted flashback.
Since I care about my readers, I’m bestowing some of those games — and a few additions I’ve made over the years — to make the transition back into the classroom a little less painful.
‘Bully’
Rockstar’s Bully took the very violent concepts of Grand Theft Auto and turned them into a teen-rated game that was playful, fun, and let students live out some of their high school fantasies. What better game is there to help you ease back into your educational prison than one that practically lets you rule the school grounds?
As troublemaker James Hopkins, players get to choose which stereotypical school group they’d like to lead, which classes they want to sit through or skip for more enjoyable activities, and which lovely lady they’d prefer to court. It’s the school simulator we never knew we wanted.
Bully is a surprisingly charming game that shows that, just maybe, the gratuitous violence of Rockstar’s other AAA titles isn’t the only trick up their sleeve.
‘Final Fantasy VIII’
A large part of Square’s polarizing followup to Final Fantasy VII took place in a mobile house of education known as Balamb Garden. While the structure loses any semblance of a school partway through, a good portion of the first act is spent going through training to become a member of SeeD, a for-hire mercenary force.
While you’re not really forced to hit the books and much of the training takes place in the field, that Balamb Garden is a school is impossible to argue. Go for a walk throughout the halls and classrooms of the large building and you’ll observe students rushing about and engaged in the typical teenage drama you’d expect to unfold by a locker room.
It’s like Square’s version of Hogwarts, where the education is there, but all anyone wants to do is everything they’re prohibited from doing.
‘Shin Megami Tensei’ Series
The first time I played through the original Persona game, Revelations, I remember thinking to myself: “Why can’t my school be overrun with demons?” Then, as I got older and dove back into the series with Persona 3, I recall thinking back to that original thought and going: “No, idiot. You’d just die.”
Irrelevant, yes, but the fact that the series chooses to stick with a high school setting works in at least two ways:
- It fulfills that younger fantasy of our school being destroyed by demi-gods, demons, and other fun atrocities
- It utilizes otherwise ordinary and dull activities, like studying, to advance characters
When you’re not busy calling upon your Persona to thwart deadly foes, you’re meandering about, deciding whether you want to spend your time hitting the books or the local arcade. At least in the digital world, there aren’t any long-term negative effects to always choosing the arcade.
‘Obscure’
In 2004, Hydravision Entertainment turned high school into the most terrifying place to be, and though Obscure wasn’t the best survival horror game by any means, playing it may make you dread starting the school year a little less.
As the horrors unfold in Leafmore High, you take control of five playable stereotypes. Oh, I mean “characters.” If you’ve ever dreamt of getting revenge on the school jock, Obscure is your chance to force him to stand around and get devoured by monsters.
Sure, it’s counterproductive to finishing the game, but it may be far more satisfying than actually completing Hydravision’s messy title.
‘River City Ransom’
Sometimes you have to go old school to find the best of what you’re looking for, and when it comes to curing “back to school” woes, River City Ransom is one of your best options.
Controlling two high school students in a Double Dragon–style beat-’em-up, you’ll take on bands of fellow students that fit within all the fun stereotypes you’ve grown to hate, like “The Jocks” and “The Frats.”
Beating up stereotypical cliques is satisfying enough, but River City Ransom is actually a great game, whether you harbor some resentment from high school or not.
Mark LoProto is a horror-loving gaming enthusiast who also has a soft spot for Ghostbusters, bubble wrap, and kittens. Look for his work here, here, and here.
