When Nintendo started porting their major IPs from the 2D SNES to the 3D 64, a lot of fans questioned how well certain series would transfer.  Especially with series like Metroid and Kirby.  It's true that Mario and Donkey Kong ported nicely, with their gameplay mechanics largely in tact comparatively.  But the major concerns were series like Kirby, where the focus was on doing more than just skilfully platforming.  So when Nintendo released the game as a 3.5D side scroller featuring the ability to mix and match powers like an indecisive fan character, the community at large reacted with an overwhelmingly positive view.  

    Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is (as previously mentioned), a 3.5 sidescroller based around consuming enemies to gain powers, which in a new twist, can be combined to form more effective or unique powers. And while the mechanics are fairly well designed, the story is lacking.  One day, while Kirby is of course eating, a magical crystal falls from the sky and is later explained to be part of some fairies crystal...sort of.  There's no voice acting or subtitles for any of the games cutscenes, so a large amount of the story is inferred via character interactions and facial expressions.  Leaving this as one of the most minimal plots for a Kirby game to date.  Not to say that's a bad thing, especially as this style of storytelling works in the games favor, leaving more space for things like powers and enemy designs as well as keeping the pace of the game fairly fast, reducing the amount of time spent not in stages.

  A hitherto unheard of premise for the Kirby series, Kirby now has the ability to combine up to two powers he has gained from suction.  Whether it's pulling a giant flaming sword from the ether or turning Kirby into a curling puck, these powers help Kirby bypass enemies and platforming challenges.  Additionally, they tend to be very fun to use and serve multiple purposes or have multiple functions.  For example, not only is his new refrigerator form invincible and can one hit ko most enemies, but the food it spits out can actually be picked up by Kirby to restore health, making most levels a breeze.  But what helps these powers stand out is the games controls, which feel tight and intuitive, as well as highly responsive.  I can safely say that any deaths I suffered from this game were of no fault to the controls, just my own ineptitude. 

As one progresses through these areas, you're also bound to notice the gorgeous 3D rendered level designs.  Sure not all of them were fantastic, most noticeably the water themed worlds tended to have bland and repetitive scenery set pieces, but a good number of the levels included--especially in the winter themed planets, provided wonderful and imaginative landscapes that more than made up for the newfound linearity the game brought in comparison to it's SNES predecessors.  

That being said, the games linear playstyle is a huge step back from the SNES era Kirby games, which featured great maze like levels complete with alternate routes, tons of hidden goodies, and platforming puzzles which required the player to obtain certain enemy powers. In fact, the only time anything remotely similar happens in Crystal Shards is when you occasionally come across a large checkered or single color brick that can only be broken with a matching colored power.  A puzzle which isn't even that difficult considering that, in another departure from previous entries, you can backtrack through 90% of the game and get the required powers from a respawned enemy.  Otherwise, you could beat almost all of the levels in game without absorbing a single enemy.  

Furthermore, as much as I praised the ability to combine different standard powers into new super powers earlier, the system suffers from some serious power balance issues.  And as much as I'd like to believe that these powers were created as jokes, it felt more degrading to think that I'd wasted time trying to smash one enemy with another enemy just to get that double power star.  For example, fireworks kirby has an impressive looking attack that does very little damage in a small range around kirby.  In fact, the range is so small you're actually likely to bump into an enemy and lose the power anyways. Or Lightbulb Kirby, who runs forward until he hits an enemy...At which point you take damage and lose the ability.  There's at least one joke power to every two good ones unfortunately, but it doesn't detract from the game any more past that initial disappointment.  

It's a good thing there are plenty of ultra useful powers as well too, considering the games difficulty curve when it comes to bosses is especially well constructed.  Even though you could get through almost any level without sucking up a single bad guy, you'll want to anyways for these boss creatures.  Since trying to take them down without acquiring one would be an exercise in self-flagellation.  Starting out easy and exhibiting typical boss traits, they start to evolve from planet 2 onwards till the Final Boss resembles nothing you'd expect from this game so far.  A fight I won't spoil because it truly has to be seen to be believed, and carries on the classic Kirby tradition of "Cutesy game, nightmare inducing end boss".  

While it wasn't a flawless transfer from 2D to 3D by any means, sacrificing it's complex level designs for linear platforming challenges made trivial by Kirby's natural ability to float and having some lackluster designs in places, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards is still a Nintendo 64 gem that  I could heartily recommend to any gamer from any age group.  Even today it's  cartoony adorableness has withstood the test of time remarkably well, and will likely be remembered fondly for a long time to come.  Which is why my overall review score for this old school classic is an eight out of ten.  

Been awhile since I've written a review (or visited the site for that matter), but despite how I said in a Monster Hunter Tri review I'd probably do Bully:  Scholarship Edition, I found a game I'd like to just get out of my system first.  I present to you kind folks, my review of the commie killing snooze fest known as Homefront!

The game starts with a bunch of political impossibilities, explaining Korea's rise to power and America's fall from super power status. Over the course of 13 years (the game is set in 2025) North Korea manages to: Take over South Korea with no opposition (stupid), develop over 1,000 ICBMs (stupid), and conquer all of the USA (stupid/impossible).  Fake news stories and newspaper articles flash across the screen with some fun graphics thrown in Call of Duty style.  America is vulnerable to the Koreans, as it turns out, because of wars in the mid east destroying oil derricks and driving the price of oil up to $20 per gallon and destroying the economy.  Once again, this is stupid because there are at least 3 other countries that could and would beat Korea to the punch and have better funded and formed militias.  Anywho, you wake up in a dirty room as Robert Jacobs and no explanation as to what you're supposed to do.  Eventually, you'll have Koreans burst into your room and proceed to kick your butt... for no reason.  You're loaded onto a bus where an NPC theorizes that, since you're both pilots, the Koreans must be rounding up pilots for something... Despite your being the only other person on the bus.  You continue down the road for awhile in the bus (try looking out the window while listening to "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood"  without laughing) until a semi crashes max speed into the side of the bus and the game begins.  Turns out, this was a rescue plan, made by resident nutjob Connor to get you because you're a pilot.  You join up with resistance and fight on to liberate 'Murica from the evil commie Koreans who shouldn't be there in the first place. 

The graphics on this game are just poor.  Everything looks like it could've been done on a PS2, and the enemy figures remind me of Return to Castle Wolfenstein.  Faces are blocky, environments are patchy, and absolutely nothing is realistic.  Ok, that's actually not entirely true; the product placements are all very well detailed, and I can only think of 1 or 2 levels that didn't have any.  Seriously, this game is littered with name drops for establishments such as Hooters, White Castle, and Full Throttle.

Difficulty is cheap on this game.  The evil commie Korean robots have the difficulty settings of "Easy, Normal, Hard, Guerilla" and adjust their magic sniper eyes accordingly.  Easy, you'll have no problems running and gunning or moving from cover to cover; Normal, you'll be hugging cover mostly as five seconds of being open will result in your demise; Hard, you'll be cowering in fear as the evil commie robots lob grenades at your cover and any time in the open equals death; Guerilla, the Koreans have sniper vision and will shoot any barely exposed part of your body and maim you if you're sticking to cover for too long with a salvo of perfectly aimed grenades.  Hell, after Normal, the enemies won't even pay any attention to your allies if they can take a shot at you. 

Sound is annoying. You get 3 allies in most missions.  The whiny female, the jackass brute, and the Korean-American.  They're almost constantly shouting at you throughout the mission, and they can't die.  The ambiance and background music are forgettable, and the only other sounds you can look forward to are the sentences the Koreans shout that you most likely can't understand.  It makes me miss games like Black; where the only noises you heard were from your gun (save a few epic moments where the appropriate soundtrack plays), the cries of your enemies (Russian, but still more enjoyable somehow), and your VERY occasional radio chatter with your 3 other teammates.  THAT'S what a shooter game should sound like. 

I haven't had a chance to test the multi-player functionality of the game, due to me being lazy and not wanting to enter the online pass, but the game is somewhat addictive.  It has collectible news articles to help explain the US downfall (Because it's so unbelievable, they have to keep pointing out all these different possible but unlikely scenarios).  Aside from finding those, there's not much reason to replay the (extremely short) game.  It's good if you have an afternoon with nothing better to do, but aside from that, I recommend only playing if you have a gamefly account.

This game earns 5/10 (red commie Korean) stars.

Like this review?  Feel free to suggest games you'd like to see reviewed!    I love writing these things, and any practice I get from the experience is great!  Also, constructive criticism is welcome as always.

Hello all, first time posting to this portion of the site because the site seems to be so well designed and all, but I need some help with a minor roadblock in my enjoyment of the RGR. 

Ever since the N64 plugin was split into Mupen and 1964 choices for emus, I've been having some problems   On Mupen, I want to configure the controls so that I can play N64 on my GC controller.  But double clicking won't bring up the controller configuration menu :/  Tried pressing keys at random, that didn't seem to do anything.  Is there some trick to configuring the controls I'm missing here? 

On 1964, it's not too much better.  The game opens up its controller config, but doesn't seem to recognize the analog stick. I can't even configure it without messing with stuff, and when I do config it, it doesn't work. 

Thank you all for being helpful, I'll let everyone know when I've fixed the stupid thing.

SamB : XD Magic/Spells are still legal.  I'm pretty sure most normal people wouldn't stand very well against PK fire.

Okay, it's you versus the main character of the last game you played, and the rules are simple.

1. It's just you and the main character fighting to the death in an arena, no one else
2. It's hand-to-hand combat, no weapons of any sort.
3. No Vehicles
4. Spells/Magic is perfectly legal from the person you're fighting, you're still just a normal person though.

So how dead are you?  My last game Wario Ware Inc, Micro-games, and if Smash bros is anything to go by, Wario would (quite literally) eat me alive.

@mlb789
Technically, it's illegal for them to hire anyone under 18 without a workers permit (Depending on what state you are in, this ranges from 13-17 for eligibility)

Anyways, I would like to apply for the position of game reviewer.  I meet the time requirements now that school is out, I am 18 years old, and while not a particularly active member (Which I confess, leaves me out of touch with some of the more regular visitors) I have had this account for ~1 and a 1/2 years. 

Also in my favor, I'm a literate gamer who's been gaming ever since he could pick up and use a N64 controller (1998, I also had the extreme fortune to have played most of the N64 classics).  I remember most of the classics and love the older stuff I missed because I was unfortunate enough to not win the genetic lottery earlier. 

For my past examples of writing, I've posted 3 on the site (could've sworn it was more), and made a website when I was in middle school that I'd rather forget about, but it's usually a good idea to include ALL forms of writing when dealing with this sort of thing (Compare older works with more recent ones to show growth?)

Listed in order of creation:

• http://www.freewebs.com/gameplanetreviews/wiireviews.htm (This is really the best one on the website, please ignore any Mario Sunshine hatred, I heard back then hating popular games was a good way to earn attention)
• https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=32648
• https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=36528
• https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=40243

And for those it may concern, I have little over 23k in Vizzed to offer as *cough*cohesive evidence of my skills*cough*.  (JK, I would never give/accept bribes.  )

Klutch : I'm not saying that it's not a review, just offering a few tips to make it better. Also, just saying '100 words and it's a game review' is a bit general don't you think?  I could spout 100 words about nothing in particular, but if I posted it in Game Reviews claiming it was a review of Sonic 2, it would be canned.

XD Isn't it a bit much to say the game is the anti-christ?  A bad game does deserve to be marked as such, but saying it will bring about the end times is a bit of an over exaggeration.

Just a few pointers, your review's a bit short and lacking.  You don't explain why the game is good, and you don't explain what sets it apart from other parkour games such as Brink.  Don't just say, "This game is awesome!", say "This game is awesome because the streamlined level design and responsive controls allow the parkour system to work flawlessly." 

Welcome to the board though :3

So I've been getting some positive comments and +votes on the last few reviews I've written, so this must mean one thing.  I AM A GOD NOW! Kidding aside, I appreciate the feedback and thank you [the readers] for taking the time to read my sad little scribblings.  I love you all in a completely 100% straight way <3 Now then, on with the review.

When I picked up the demo disc for Tri at my local gamestop, it was because they were giving them away free while I was buying a copy of Bully for the Wii (Which I may review sometime). When I got bored and decided to slide the demo disc into my Wii, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Never having played a Monster Hunter game before (I'd never even heard of it before), I was surprised to get an array of warriors wielding different weapons.  I eventually settled on the one wielding the huge bone lance, and went along my merry way.

It was at this point the rather unconventional system mangled me.  I couldn't use the inventory right, the items didn't make much sense to me and changing between them was difficult to do while fighting; I couldn't fight well, because the unique combat controls weren't used in anything else I'd ever played; I wasn't able to effectively manage stamina, once again it was new to me; and when the great pink raptor came and killed me, the game told me that my reward dropped by 1/3 and I lost spirit. 

I shelved the game for awhile, then I eventually was drawn back.  Something about wanting to learn and slay the Great Pink Raptor was too much for me to resist. When I learned, the world opened up and was a much less hostile environment, and the next day I went and per-ordered the full game.  I still play it to this day.

Monster Hunter Tri is the first Wii release of the PIJ (Popular in Japan) series, Monster Hunter.  Previous releases being for the PS2 and PSP, it was a bit of a shock when Capcom announced that the newest release would be on the Wii instead of the PS3 to "Attract more gamers to the series".  In fact, they tried very hard at Capcom to market Tri, releasing fairly good tv ads, shipping a ton of demo discs, and offering 500 wiipoints to people who preorder the game.  Still, it didn't sell too well, but enough people play to form a great community.

Monster Hunter Tri (MHT), is one of the most visually impressive Wii games available.  The amount of detail put into every last model and texture is simply amazing, and scenery changes with night and day cycles.  If you choose to look up this game, I recommend searching "The Great Desert" or "Deserted Island", the first two areas you'll encounter which feature a decent mixture of biomes. The scaly patterns on monsters are greatly detailed, and monster design is unique and creative, and the armors and weapons also have great visuals. 

The music in MHT is almost as amazing as the graphics.  Fully orchestrated themes and music will make slaying the gigantic inhabitants of this world feel 10x more epic than anything else can. But don't take my word for, search "Testament of a Hero" or "Ceadeus Pt2 theme", and enjoy the engrossing melodies.  No game is more capable of making an epic moment with its music than MHT.  Aside from the music though, there's also the character voices, weapon sounds, and monster roars; but the former 2 aren't utilized enough to make an impact in playing.  The monster noises, however, are all unique and intriguing.  Each one is the twisted and remixed noise of actual zoo animals (See if you can see which ones are which).

The controls to MHT are unique from other games in the RPG genre, and change depending on what controller you use.  I'll describe Wiimote+Nunchuk play because it's what I use, but you may also play with the classic controller.  By holding down Z, you'll sprint (Consumes stamina, but makes you hightail it out of any situation), + will draw your weapon, B does a brief dodge where you can use invincibility frames to move past fast moving enemy attacks, and A will do an attack depending on what weapon you're using and how you hold the Wiimote.  C and the D-Pad will allow you to quick access your inventory/scroll through it, and the 1 button allows you to use whatever item is currently highlighted.  By just tapping the C button, you'll snap to whatever direction your character is facing, and the D-pad let's you spin the camera.  The 2 button allows you to bring up a series of menus, most of which are used for multiplayer.  In MP, tapping 2 again will allow you to chat with people via a soft keyboard or a USB keyboard should you have one.

Combat is smooth once you get used to it.  You'll notice the game becomes less of you learning to fly, and more of a weird combat dance of dodges, thrusts, parries, and the occasional aerial trip. By chaining strikes, dodges, counters, and items together in combat, you'll take down most monsters without problem.  Fail to do so, and you'll have a much less enjoyable experience. You also need to take into accounting the weapons you use and armor sets, as each weapon has it's own unique feature and armors have skills.

Each set of armor comes with it's own skill points, which when stacked to the appropriate total, grant skills which make hunting easier by negating status effects, increasing atk/def, or doing a variety of other fun things to give you an edge.  If you want a specific skill to mix with some other useful skills, but your armor doesn't provide the necessary points, you can attach skill modifying gems to increase the points artificially and gain the skill.  But to do this, the armor/wep needs to have an appropriate amount of slots, and some gems will negate other skills.  It turns into a game of balancing the points while trying to maintain other skills.

There's not much depth or story in the game.  MHT's story starts with you, a newbie hunter, landing by boat in scenic Moga Village; a bustling fishing village that seems normal until you experience a massive earthquake.  When you wake up, it's explained that an electric water dragon known as the Lagiacrus is creating disturbances underwater that are somehow large enough to cause friggin' earthquakes.  You, however, being a newb are not yet ready to take on the fierce beast, and need to grind quests for cash and equipment to take it on.  If you're wondering why the guild sent a newb to deal with the electric death crocodile, I'm as stumped as you. But once the game starts, you don't really have much reminding you of what your focus is, and the missions you take don't really have much plot in them except for some flavor text.  But in a world where it's humanly possible to lift weapons 2x your size, do you really need to ask for explanations?

Now, most of the difficulty in MHT is in learning how to play.  It all falls down to experimentation.  Finding your type of weapon, armor that works for you, what items you bring for each monster, how to approach them, and so on.  There's a 1-hour tutorial with the village chiefs son, but that only explains how to do basic things like attack, use the inventory, and and dodge.  It doesn't get into the advanced subject of WHEN to do these things, but if you're a fast learner, knock the difficulty rating down to a 6.  Aside from the learning curve, the monsters after #3 start to get scary powerful, and more armored as well.  You'll soon learn the importance of sharper weapons when they start bouncing off the Barroth.

Finally, we have the community aspect of the game.  Not really a programmable thing, but still as essential to any game is the people who play it. MHT is a mixed basket of good and bad, with people who're both helpful and annoying.  If you need help, there's plenty of people who're more than willing to do so.  I've seen plenty of low leveled people get normally unobtainable gear (to them at least) because a higher ranked player went out and slayed some tougher monsters with them.  There are also people online such as SocialDissonance who do tutorials on the monsters, and there's always great info available on the Monster Hunter Wiki.  The problem though tends to be the elitist players.  People who constantly berate/verbally assault/embarrass new players because they're not as awesome as them, or they messed the timing on one part, or because they missed with that flash bomb.  The elitists are also obnoxiously always insisting on how they're the right ones on spotty issues like Crit Damage and multipliers.  But the people who are helpful definitely balance out the obnoxious.  There's also the strong sense of comradery I get whenever I join a team of hunters, and everyone does their part exceptionally well.  One more thing, the online supports Wiispeak

When you ignore the steep learning curve, and finally get into the game, it preforms exceptionally well, and makes a great exception to the usual JRPG format.  Get your friends to buy it, and you'll suddenly have weeks of new conversations as you compare notes and strategies on how to fight certain monsters.  And with the price marked down to $20, it's not like you're losing much (unlike the poor saps who got Duke Nukem on release day).  I recommend buying this game and becoming a hunter for the rest of your days, living in the blood of your hunt, and the admiration of your fellow hunters!!!

Seriously though, 9.5/10 Vs

@Dainesl01

I have to disagree with you on how those shooters are all the same.  I'll grant you that at it's core, the Shooter genre is just point and click with more explosions, but the way they choose to play the cards makes them unique.

Grand Theft Auto prefers making you and your enemies frail as glass and letting you figure out how to stay alive.
Gears of War is big on chest-high walls and big guns, and lets you either be a strategist or a run-n-gun commando.
Halo prefers flashy and nearly cinematic battles (For example, Halo 3; You're having a laser shootout with a floating sphere over long walkways)
And Half-life loves showing off it's physics and stuff.  Especially with its gravity gun.

If you find them unoriginal, that's your opinion though XD

I'm inclined to say the Final Fantasy and Metal Gear series.  I've heard great things about both, and I enjoy the gameplay portions very much.  But the 30m-1hr cutscenes tend to make it impossible to stay focused on the game.  I prefer instantaneous action and gameplay with short and concise scenes. Games like Monster Hunter and games like it are far more entertaining to me

You didn't find it difficult XD?  Eh, I probably just suck hard at side scrolling beat'em ups like TMNT IV then XD

This game has been a part of my childhood.  Growing up in Virginia, I would almost always go over to my neighbors house to play this game, eat pizza, and have a good time (Also, we'd laugh at what Turtles in Time acronyms into).  Since logging into "Teh Interwebs", I see that many others have had the same childhood experience with this game, so please don't get shell shocked when I say something negative about this game; because A) it's still an amazing game, and B) It's a review, also known as a critique.  If I did nothing but praise the game, then its really just another fan gushing about his favorite game.

On with the review, TMNT IV: TIT is the SNES port of the arcade game of the same name.  In the late 90's, you could find this game sucking up quarters in every kind of arcade, and there would  be four kids using it constantly who never met until they inserted their 2 tokens to play as 1 of the four amazing turtles.  It brought people together in ways that only the MMO's of today can, without having to use online game-play as a lure.  After a few years of success, they ported it to the home console of the time (SNES), and in the process changed some things (For the better).

For one thing, the graphics are an improvement on the old arcade cabinet.  They're brighter and more colorful, and since you play it on your TV, you don't have to worry about some Jackass coming in, and smashing the screen/render the game unplayable.  That's actually not a joke btw; half the time my friends and I went down to the arcade,  the cabinet would be busted for various reasons.  Either someone broke the speaker, screen, or coin acceptor and it wouldn't be repaired until the end of the week (At which point someone would invariably bust it again).  Character movements, while not as fluid as other games such as Chrono Trigger, are well animated.  Every single throw and hit has the feeling of impact in it, and the enemy's 'hurt' animations convey the impact of the weapons.  Aside from the characters, enemies and locations are varied and detailed enough to never be boring, doubly so for bosses.

The music is amazing for the era this game comes from, it's always fitting to the stage it's connected to.  You can be brawling in the streets one moment to fighting on a pirate ship the next, and the music will always keep you in the kick-ass mindset.  The kick-ass rock music fits the game perfectly, and you'll never get tired of it.  Don't believe me, use Youtube to find out for yourself.  Just search "TMNT IV opening theme".

TMNT IV is in no way a direct port of the arcade classic, aside from the enhanced graphics, they've added:

• New stages
• Changed stages
  
• switched around bosses
• changed the techno drome bossfight to incorporate the camera throw
• added bosses

These changes are all for the better, but there are some areas where they should've changed in the game mechanics.  For one thing, the game is really difficult.  Enemies can grab you, and collision detection is going to screw you over a few times with enemies grabbing you a fair distance away.  I honestly think it's intentional however, since as an arcade game, it relies on death to make money.  You also have a limited number of lives and continues, but that's completely useless since the SNES isn't coin-operated.  Due to the games difficulty, and the limited number of lives/continues, it may be awhile before you face down the final boss, let alone see the end credits.

All in all, this is an amazing game, but the quarter-eater tactics left in just really bug me.  It's something that wasn't needed put in for a roadblock for no reason.  Also, the gameplay only changes once in awhile, and when it does, it only seems to go from "walk to the right and punch dudes" to "variation of walking to the right and punching dudes." Problems aside though, the game deserves the near perfect score of 9/10 pizza slices.  I'm open to constructive criticisms, and let me know if you enjoyed this review below.

My family's worst chef is my little brother, but he's only 14.  He also has the same problem Annette has with her sis.  He's too lazy to do anything more than open a can and heat it up.

Okay, mass speculation time!  Based on these articles(http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/mysterious-planet-sized-object-spotted-near-mercury-154443870.html    http://www.thetechherald.com/articles/Astronomers-discover-potentially-life-sustaining-planet)  How likely is it that there's intelligent life on other planets?  Also, what risk do we have at being invaded?  Note:  This is not to be a debate, just post your speculations here. 

Me and my friends would be in a hotwired mail truck, making our way to a Walmart super center we plan on fortifying to pick zomzoms off from.  We'll slowly kill all the zomzoms in NC, fortify the state with a giant wall (Approx. 10 years total to finish), and make an expansive network of survivors.

Everyone knows Dec 21st is Zombie Apocalypse.

@Seanne  You forgot Mahatma Gandhi.

@U4EA  I wouldn't say there's something wrong with you, everyone has their own views and opinions which we're entitled to, and having differentiating ones doesn't mean there's a problem with you.  But people are uncomfortable around constantly down people, and you should try going to more parties (Even if you don't like them, it will improve your image significantly)  

I resolve to do better in school and apply myself more to opening a small business(Comic Bookstore)

My fellow monster hunter brethren!  Come here and post your accomplishments on the game!  Also, if you have any questions on the game, ask them here and have a fellow hunter reply!

Under bragging, I'm almost at the title for killing a Gigginox 50 times in Tri!  I have most of the 20 kill titles also, and have the -Dark Cloud- title.






Image upload: 300x300 totaling 17 KB's.