10 Craziest Schools of Gaming

SNES and Sega Genesis Beavis and Butt-head titles were travesties in each of their own right. Despite each console version of Beavis and Butt-head playing much differently than the other, they both sent you to Highland High School. In each version, Principal McVicar, Coach Buzzcut and Van Driessen each live up to their television counterparts in being three extreme ranges of discipline, trying to establish some control in the lives of Beavis and Butt-head. Throughout Highland's halls, men were trying to shoot you, women were trying to trip you, and, in the gymnasium, was Todd (the boys' older, criminal bully), trying to beat them you up with a wrench. Highland High's extreme conditions are why it starts off our list of the 10 Craziest Schools of Gaming.

River City Ransom was a top contender for trying to get into our list of the 10 Best Retro Beat 'Em Ups. For a Nintendo Entertainment System release, Ransom was surprisingly in-depth, having both RPG elements added to its side-scrolling beat 'em up mechanics. River City revolved around two guys trying to protect River City High School and a love interest from gangs coming from other schools. These gangs were named "The Jocks", "The Generic Dudes" and "The Frat Guys". We'll never forget River City Ransom's sandbox-style gameplay as we went from high school to high school taking out baddies left and right.

In Telltales Games' continuation of the Back to the Future story, Marty McFly had to travel to 1931 to prevent another temporal travesty. Towards the latter-end of the adventure, Marty had to go to Hill Valley High School and prevent a young Emmett Brown from unveiling a certain flying car. Regardless of Marty's quest to prevent the outbreak of chaos across the space-time continuum, it was great to revisit Hill Valley High School. We had a Tannen up to no good, a Strickland trying to enforce the rules, a Doc Brown going crazy about science and a visitor from the future trying to clean it all up.

Gekkoukan's Iwatodai Dorm had a lot going on after dark. For some reason, certain students were able to visit the Tartarus, a giant tower that appears only to a limited few during a reoccuring 25th hour phenomena. It turns out that Gekkoukan High was built atop a research facility that was researching shadows but ultimately became the harbinger of the apocalypse. Your character had to explore the Tartarus and stop the influx of shadow creatures, all while trying to live the life of a high school student.

Midwich Elementary makes it on this list due to its Otherworld transformation in the original Silent Hill. Its dark and hell-like change was unlike anything that had ever happened before in survival horror, and left us terrified due to its originality, its purposely-limited controls, and Silent Hill's rare occurrence of ammunition. And we can't forget all those demonic children. Ultimately, Midwich tells us one distinct thing: school can literally be hell.

Sure, other titles have tried to capture the experience of a pixelated Hogwarts before, but the Lego Harry Potter series does so in a much more memorable way. Using its trademark blocks as a way of constructing Potter's school of witchcraft and wizardry, Lego Harry Potter captivated gamers worldwide. Forming Dumbledore's Army, repelling Dementors, or dueling Voldemort are just a few of the things in this entry on our list of the 10 Craziest Schools of Gaming. But nothing beats exploring every nook and cranny of the school for bonus Lego studs and extra points.

Jimmy Hopkins' escapades throughout Bullworth Academy took all the crazy aspects of schooling and cranked it to the max. Jimmy had to get through the five big preps of his school -- the jocks, the preppies, the nerds, the greasers and the townies -- as he tries to disrupt the order as much as he can. In turn, Jimmy takes turns going to war against each of these factions. Having jocks treat you like dirt, or nerds making fun of your lack of technical prowess are all standard parts of the schooling experience, but Bullworth Academy's numerous over-the-top incidents propel it into the insane.

Winterhold used to be a great town, until it took its resident district to the sea. Many of Winterhold's surviving inhabitants believe that the nearby school of magic was the cause of the city falling into the ocean. Since the College of Winterhold was not technically part of the worldwide Mage's Guild, they are neither under guild jurisdiction, nor are there any major restrictions set in place as to the learning of magic. As a result, necromancy, assassinations, betrayals and underground dark arts are a bit more common at the College of Winterhold than most other places in the world of Tamriel.

Balamb Garden is actually the training facility for SeeD, Cid and Edea Kramer's own private military company. These mercenaries get trained in a wide array of combat knowledge with the ultimate goal of fighting and destroying Ultimecia, an all-powerful sorceress from the future who intends to compress and undo all of time itself in order to become a deity. On top of Balamb Garden's scholastic combat training, it is also a giant mobile structure, which happens to make our list of the 10 Best Modes of Transportation in RPGs.

With franchise name of "Rival Schools", it would make sense that its final school take the top spot on our list of the 10 Craziest Schools of Gaming. Throughout Aoharu City, each school has been the target of abductions and attacks, preying on each school's students and staff. As a result, the students and faculty of the town's six schools have taken it upon themselves to hit the streets and start bashing heads until they find the culprit. These students bring their talents and trades to the battlefield, and each fighter's style is oriented towards either a sport or scholastic/after school club. We absolutely loved the Rival Schools/Project Justice series and hope for a new title, so it shouldn't be surprising that the most evil school in Aoharu City is also the craziest.