The season of family getaways, swimming, and sunshine is once again wrapping up. August was always bittersweet as a kid, as it represented the end of summer vacation and a return to another long year of school. As soon as those back-to-school sale commercials started up as a youth, I knew the end was near.
So as the seasons change and the leaves turn, let us celebrate the games of the fall. Whether you’re still a student trying to fit in a game in the back of the bus, or looking for a way to reconnect with your scholastic years, we’ve got you as covered as oak leaves on the lawn.
Bully
First appearing on the PS2 back in 2006, this somewhat forgotten action-adventure game from Rockstar sends players to the fictional classrooms of Bullworth Academy. You play as Jimmy, a teenage kid sent to the school and forced to navigate all the social cliques and adventures that come along with the high school experience.
Bully
It was a unique experience at the time and remains so today. The game retains Rockstar’s sense of humor and typical anti-hero protagonist without making Jimmy a bully himself. There are tons of places to explore, pranks to pull, and characters that makeup Bully. If you missed it the first time around, you can have a lot of fun attending this school.
Oregon Trail
If you were there, then you know. Oregon Trail is the quintessential Millennial school computer lab experience. The chances are that if you grew up in the 8 and 16-bit console eras, you played Oregon Trail on a PC at school at some point. The game is even used as the description of an entire mini-generation of kids that grew up in the analog to digital transformation.
If you’re overloaded with buffalo carcasses, you’re in trouble…..
There have been countless variations and releases over the years, but the gist of it is you’re guiding a wagon group across the American westward frontier and trying to get them there safely. When someone in my party wasn’t dying of dysentery, I usually spent most of my time hunting and flipping the wagon over at river crossings.
Skool Daze
If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to attend a British boy’s school in a 1984 Commodore 64 presentation, then boy have we got a game for you. This game certainly looks a bit basic by today’s standards, but it is worth mentioning here for something other than just its educational setting. Skool Daze was actually one of the first sandbox games you could experience.
C64’s Skool Daze on the RG Cube
Long before you could ignore missions in GTA and just spend your time messing about, Skool Daze was there to fill the goof-around gap. You are free to explore and interact with the set pieces and characters of the school as you wish. There is no “right” way to play the game. You can do what you’re supposed to be in school for and work on studying, or you can just find ways to mess with other students and teachers. Be warned, though, the faculty is on the prowl.
The Simpsons: Hit & Run
Moving on to a slightly more advanced and colorful take on the GTA sandbox genre comes The Simpsons: Hit & Run. This was the first Simpsons game I can recall that really did a good job capturing the essence and characters of the deep Springfield universe.
“I am evil Homer! I am evil Homer!”
You can explore a faithfully recreated version of the famously stateless city. Missions will take you back to Springfield Elementary for a variety of missions, and if you stick with it, you can even fulfill all your Otto dreams and drive the bus to school while the children wonder what your jacket smells like.
Vigilante 8
The School Bus in Vigilante 8 on PSX
You can’t have an article about back-to-school retro games and not feature the game that had a combat-outfitted caution-yellow school bus right on the cover. It just wouldn’t be right. Vigilante 8 takes the car combat formula born earlier in the PSX generation with the Twisted Metal series and adds some fun elements to make it stand out.
As a kid, I actually always preferred the Vigilante 8 series until Twisted Metal Black eventually came along. It was a bit more polished and balanced than the Twisted Metal games at the time and just felt like a more fun world to inhabit when battling with your friends over a split screen. If you’re a fan of the genre and have never taken this one for a test drive, it’s worth a spin.
ESPN NFL2K5
Ok, so maybe this doesn’t fall directly into the category of a “back to school game”, but if the coming of a new school year and another fall signals one thing to a lot of folks, it’s the return of NFL Football. Plus, this gives me an excuse to include what I and many other people consider to be the finest football game ever made. Factor in modern emulation upscaling and I’m still a happy camper.
Kyle Boller sizing up the competition in ESPN NFL2k5
If you aren’t familiar with the backstory, in 2005 EA locked up exclusive rights to the NFL license. No one has been able to make a game using NFL teams or players since. NFL2k5 offered an experience that featured a level of realistic simulation and presentation (thanks to a masterfully executed ESPN integration) that many argue hasn’t really been matched since. They did all this with an MSRP of $19.99 shortly after release to compete with Madden. EA didn’t like any of this, and I’ve been left feeling “meh” about my only available option ever since.
Closing Thoughts
Whether these games remind you of your own school days or you’re still in school and want to make new memories in your educational downtime, hopefully, there’s something for you here. What games give you that fall-back-to-school feeling? Let us know in the comments below, and chat with us in our Discord!
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