Diving into the hauntingly beautiful Song of the Deep, a review

 by Gamatroid

Merryn waits all night for her father to return from his fishing voyage. He never does. After a vivid dream showing her father trapped under the sea, Merryn is determined to save him. This unlikely heroine builds a small submarine from spare parts and sets off to rescue him. 

SONG OF THE DEEP

• RELEASE DATE: 6/12/16
• MSRP: $14.99
• DEVELOPER: Insomniac Games
• PUBLISHER: GameTrust Games
• PLATFORMS: Xbox, PlayStation and PC(Steam)
• PLAYED ON: Xbox Series S

Song of the Deep is an underwater metroidvania, starring a young girl searching for her father in a small submarine.

Like many metroidvania-style games, you explore a wide area where you can travel back and forth between regions, and you unlock access to new areas through finding new equipment.

Clearly this game came out quite a while ago, but I only just got around to playing it. I got it on sale a while back and its been firmly stuck in my backlog. Honestly not sure why I finally got around to playing it, but I'm very glad I did.

RETRO ROOTS

At the risk of talking about the same games inspiring every metroidvania ever made, which typically includes Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, I thought it might be best to look back at the very first "metroidvania" when it was just...Metroid.

Metroid

Of course you can't have a Metroidvania without paying omage to the original game on NES.

The first Metroid game really did start it all, albeit without some of the genre-standard enhancements that would later make the games much more playable, like having a world map, which the original Metroid didn't (crazy, right? how the heck did we ever find anything?). 

In fact, the only "map" was this illustration in the instruction manual. Helpful, right?

Honestly, for me the original Metroid is kind of hard to play, and other than its very important place in gaming history, I'd rather play its sequel: Super Metroid on the Super NES.

REVIEW

SCORES OUT OF 10

Gameplay & Mechanics: 8

Song of the Deep has both the benefit and the burden of many, many metroidvania-type games come before it. It shares a lot of the common elements with other games in this genre, like an interconnected world with secrets to discover, and unreachable areas that become accessible once you acquire new abilities. In keeping with its underwater / submarine theme, however, its interesting that you use a claw as your primary weapon and that doubles as a tool to grab things to solve puzzles. I love its dual purpose and eventually you unlock torpedoes and sonar blasts, which are all unique to the setting and totally relevant. It certainly makes the game feel fresh among a sea of other metroidvanias.

 

Visuals & Art Direction: 9

One area that almost everyone seems to agree on is Song of the Deep is a beautiful game. Its underwater world and the areas you navigate look really good, and it has backgrounds that stretch way into the distance hinting at a world that is much larger than the area you get to explore. Every section of the game is not only unique in its design but it looks absolutely amazing. Truly I can't go on enough about how great this game looks.

 

Audio & Music: 8

While the music in Song of the Deep is also beautiful, I really enjoyed its spoken narrative, which not only helps it feel like a storybook, but the Scottish accent of its narrator gives the game a unique vibe. Like the graphics, everything about the sound design is beautiful.

Story & Narrative: 8

The story of Song of the Deep is also "deeper" (ha ha) than many modern metroidvanias, and also unique. It's not set in space. It's not set in some Dark Souls-esque world. It's also not simply set underwater, but it combines actual things you would find in the ocean along with folklore-like mystical creatures and futuristic mechanical wonders. It really weaves an incredible world to explore, and I really hope the developer will go back and create more games in it someday.

 

Technical Performance: 6

While I didn't find the game performed badly, I did encounter a few glitches and issues that seem like they should have been patched out by now. For example, there were a few times where the audio glitched and either triggered something early, or kept playing when I had been killed and was respawning. Not a big deal, but doesn't seem like a conscious design decision. This is the one area where I feel the game could have received a bit more playtesting and polish, but I also don't think its a big enough issue to severely detract from the overall experience. Just know going in that you will likely encounter a few issues here and there, and just work around it.

Innovation & Originality: 8

Song of the Deep certainly has a lot of unique ideas within the metroidvania-genre, but at the end of the day it is still a metroidvania at its core. It certainly gets style points for doing different things within the genre, but the main gameplay will still feel very familiar to most gamers, which is not a bad thing, but it doesn't scream "highly innovative" either. 

Value: 9

Frankly, even at $14.99 this game is a steal, and you can regularly find it on sale much cheaper than that (I guarantee I didn't pay full price). It's a really well made, beautiful game, and it is probably priced a little below where it could be. I wholly recommend it, even at full price.

Score Summary

• 8 - Gameplay & Mechanics
• 9 - Visuals & Art Direction
• 8 - Audio & Music
• 8 - Story & Narrative
• 6 - Technical Performance
• 8 - Innovation & Originality
• 9 - Value

OVERALL SCORE: 8 

Song of the Deep is a wonderful, beautiful, well crafted experience. The only thing that drags its score down a bit are the technical glitches still present in the game, but they don't ruin what is otherwise an extremely enjoyable game. Even at full price this game is a great value, and I wholly recommend that everyone play it.

CRITICS CORNER

In looking at other critic reviews and user ratings, the scores for Song of the Deep are lower than I think the game deserves. Most reviews agree that the game is beautiful, but some ding it badly for what they claim is uncompelling gameplay or technical issues. Clearly I disagree. While there are some glitches I ran into, I thought the overall game was excellent and my score wasn't higher simply because of the glitches I did encounter which suggest it could have been polished a bit further. 

(EG's score compared to other publications - raw score quoted then followed by normalized score out of 10, if applicable) 

• Gamatroid Gaming: 8/10
• IGN: 6/10
• Game Informer: 7/10
• GameSpot: 6/10
• Polygon: 7/10 

You can check out my beginning gameplay from Song of the Deep in the YouTube video below: 

Fixing Xbox Video and Audio Out of Sync for Editing on PC

 by Gamatroid

If you've followed me for a bit you probably noticed I post videos regularly to YouTube. Sometimes as much as one per day, sometimes even more than that. So even though I'm no "expert" I can say I'm more than a bit familiar with capturing, editing and uploading video.

I tend to capture video from one of four primary sources: directly on my Xbox Series S, directly on my PlayStation 5, directly on PC (while playing a game on PC), and directly on my iPhone. 

While I generally don't run into issues with video I've captured, recently I ran into an issue that I've only had a few times before, where the audio of a video I captured on my Xbox Series S was out of sync by the end of the video clip when I was editing it using the PC program HitFilm.

I opened the video file on my computer and played it using Media Player, and it didn't appear that the issue was with the file itself, but no matter how many times I retried, by the end of the video clip (it was about 45 minutes long) the audio was noticeably out of sync with the video. 

After a bit of searching online I came across a subreddit that seemed to address the issue I was experiencing and it seemed to offer a solution to the problem.

Without going into all of the details, it seems that the "issue" is that Xbox captures video using variable refresh rate, which video players often have no issue with, but video editing programs generally can't handle well, which leads to the audio sync issues I was experiencing.

The solution? You have to convert the video from variable to constant frame rate, and that keeps the video in sync in the editing program (at least it worked for me using HitFilm). 

How do you convert the video?

By using a program, like the one I used, which was recommended in that subreddit (I'd be happy to link to the subreddit, but not sure of the path anymore).

The program I used is called HandBrake, and its a free download available at the following link: https://handbrake.fr/

After I converted my video and used the version with the constant frame rate, my issue was completely solved.

You can see the end result in my new YouTube video showing the beginning of the COD Black Ops 6 campaign:

If this has been giving you issues, I hope this fixes the problem for you as well. 

If you're interested in the video editing software I use, it's called HitFilm and you can download it for free at the following link: https://fxhome.com/product/hitfilm

They have paid plans available which unlock more features, but I've been just fine with their free plan so far (and I've editing a TON of videos with it).

Good luck!!

Street Fighter IV CE Shoryukens Into Netflix Gaming - iOS Review

by Gamatroid

A new warrior has entered the ring!

STREET FIGHTER IV CE

• RELEASE DATE: 4/22/25
• MSRP: Included with Netflix Subscription (or $4.99 on AppStore)
• DEVELOPER: Capcom/FINE
• PUBLISHER: Capcom
• PLATFORMS: iOS, Android
• PLAYED ON: iOS (iPhone 14 Pro)

Street Fighter IV Champion Edition was recently added to Netflix Gaming, and while it isn't a new release per se, it wasn't available as part of a gaming subscription service until now, so anyone who wanted it previously had to pony up $4.99 (like I did).

Now you may think that playing Street Fighter on a mobile device isn't exactly the best way to play, and you'd be right, but it is one of the most accessible ways to play, and this version on iOS does a damn fine job of making the game as accessible and playable as possible. 

RETRO ROOTS

As Street Fighter IV CE on mobile is just a mobile-friendly port of an existing game, the mobile version takes its influence from the same place as the console version: the long-running Street Fighter game series.

Street Fighter II

While it's true that the Street Fighter series originally began with the very first game in the arcade, the truth is that game was pretty awful and without the introduction of the incredible and legendary Street Fighter II, the series probably would have fizzled out after the first one. 

Street Fighter II not only reinvigorated the series, but it set a new standard for fighting games and really created the entire fighting game craze of the 90s, which would spawn Mortal Kombat, all of SNK's fighting games, and a bunch of lesser clones that vary widely in quality. It's hard to underscore just how vital Street Fighter II was to the evolution of fighting games, and how we play them today. 

Even the idea of a "Champion Edition" was started in the Street Fighter II series, when Capcom released an updated version of their game where you could play as the same character (because in the first one you couldn't), which introduced the concept of color palette swaps (which again was a first), and also introduced the idea of being able to play as boss characters. Truly revolutionary, and it had a direct influence on Street Fighter IV CE.

REVIEW

Gameplay & Mechanics

Street Fighter IV Champion Edition is a mobile-first Street Fighter and its touch controls are truly excellent. Now, keep in mind that everything is relative, but in a world where SNK's fighters are practically unplayable with their touch controls, SFIVCE plays like a dream. 

It even has touch screen enhancements like being able to touch on the super meters when charged to instantly execute those moves. You don't have to do it that way, and if you want to input the button combos to do so, you certainly can, but I really enjoy the one-tap nature of the move execution. 

Overall gameplay is really enjoyable, and this is one of the best fighters I've ever played on mobile with touch controls. 

Now, the only negative in this area is SFIVCE doesn't appear to work with Backbone or mobile controllers at all. At first I thought it was just me, and Backbone does list it as compatible, but it doesn't work. Maybe that will be fixed in an update, but for now the touch controls are your only option.

 

Visuals & Art Direction

Street Fighter IV Champion Edition was first released in 2018, for phones that were significantly under-powered compared to the monsters in our pockets today. This means SFIVCE runs great, but its graphics could certainly be better in 2025 running on the latest hardware. The characters are pixelized-rendered versions of the 3D characters found in the console versions of SFIV, and the backgrounds are completely static images of the 3D backgrounds in the console version. While the characters still look pretty good, the backgrounds look rough. Granted, this game is simply a rerelease of a seven year old game, so you can't expect as much as you would from a recent release, but still its a bit underwhelming in its graphical presentation.

 

Audio & Music

Even though the visuals might not have kept pace with the newest games, there is nothing wrong with the audio. SFIVCE uses the same announcers, music and style as the console version, and frankly it sounds great. No notes.

Story & Narrative

The story of SFIVCE is in line with the other Street Fighter games. It certainly won't win any Oscars, but the backstory and motivation of each fighter is interesting enough to help populate the victory screens and ending sequences. Nothing wrong with it, but not necessarily noteworthy either. 

 

Technical Performance

Given this game was designed to be playable on seven-year-old hardware, if you have a recent gen device, you won't have any issues. Heck, I played it back when it first released, and I think it played great back then too.

Innovation & Originality

Seeing a fighting game play so well with touch-controls is pretty damn innovative. It may not seem like a big thing, but if you've tried to play as many "console emulated" fighting games on mobile as I have, you would know just how special the touch controls in this game are. It's like what Christian Whitehead did for Sonic on mobile, Capcom has somehow achieved for Street Fighter IV. 

Value

Even the original Street Fighter IV CE was a great deal at $4.99 for a fully fledged fighting game on mobile. Now that it comes complimentary with any Netflix subscription, you'd be hard pressed to find a better value.

 

  OVERALL SCORE: 8  

 

Street Fighter IV CE is great. Frankly, if the graphics weren't so dated at this point, I would have scored it much higher. I do realize it's simply a port of a seven-year-old game, but I think it's still necessary to take into account what the experience will be like for a gamer in 2025. Also, the lack of controller support at the moment is a negative, but given how good the touch controls are, this is only a slight negative. Most of the time I'm not carrying my Backbone around, so the fact that it works almost flawlessly with just on-screen touch controls is frankly amazing. Really fun game, and given it is included with any Netflix subscription is incredible. If you like Street Fighter and have Netflix, you definitely need to give this a try.

CRITIC'S CORNER 

In looking at other critic reviews and user ratings, the scores for Street Fighter IV CE are generally high, with the exception of Pocket Gamer UK for the original 2018 release. 

(EG's score compared to other publications - raw score quoted then followed by normalized score out of 10, if applicable) 

• Gamatroid: 8/10
• Touch Arcade: 4.5/5 (9/10)
• Pocket Gamer UK: 2.5/5 (5/10)
• iOS AppStore: 4.8/5 (9.6/10)
• Google Play: 4.7/5 (9.4/10) 

You can check out my (almost) complete playthrough with Ken in the video below: 

Wings of Endless Hands-On Preview: Hammer Smashing Action Coming to a Console Near You!

I recently had the opportunity demo Wings of Endless, a  new 2D pixel art side-scrolling action RPG launching May 8th across Switch, PlayStation, Xbox and PC.

Honestly I wasn't sure what to expect, since there are so many mediocre pixel-art games out there, but Wings of Endless honestly (and happily) surprised me.

The game starts with Hariku, the first character you will control, who is a "brash bounty hunter" who claims he is the best at what he does (I thought that was Logan, but what do I know?) He eventually meets an owl who just happens to be magical and can talk (who he names "Owly", much to the owl's dismay) and they set off on an epic quest (is there any other kind of quest in a video game?)

The action in Wings of Endless is much like any other side-scrolling platformer / metroidvania, and overall that's a good thing. There are familiar mechanics so you can pick-up and play it easily, but it also introduces some unique twists that keep it interesting.

The writing in the game is also quite good. I found myself laughing at a good deal of the dialogue between Hariku and Owly. The story isn't that special in itself, but the way the dialogue is written makes up for it.

The gameplay in the demo seems quite tight and well calibrated, which is something a lot of modern indie pixel-art games seem to lack. The enemies follow set patterns for the most part, but like you would expect from an old school adventure game; certainly nothing that takes away from the experience. If anything, the way the gameplay has been crafted just reinforces the retro feeling of the game, in a good way.

Like a lot of modern retro-styled games, Wings of Endless also has a few retro screen filters you can implement. Generally I do like to use filters when they are good. From what I could see, one of the filters was a little less intense and seemed to look good, and the other was a bit much for my taste.

I'm looking forward to Wings of Endless when it releases tomorrow, and you may want to keep an eye out for it. Seems like a good one. 

If you would like to see my gameplay of the demo, you can watch the video below (although I wholly encourage you to just play the demo for yourself on Steam):

GladMort - a Super New NEOGEO Game Full of Ghosts N Goblin Goodness

By Gamatroid

In a forgotten kingdom, in an era lost in the labyrinth of time...

GLADMORT

• RELEASE DATE: 3/21/25
• MSRP: $14.99 (console); $12.99 (PC); 380€ (NEOGEO physical cart)
• DEVELOPER: Chipsonsteroids
• PUBLISHER: PixelHeart
• PLATFORMS: PC/Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and NEOGEO
• PLAYED ON: PS5

GladMort is a new game designed for, and released on, the NEOGEO in 2025. 

The publisher has actually made physical carts available for purchase, which is honestly really awesome, but like most NEOGEO games, the physical version of GladMort is MUCH more expensive than your typical game in 2025 (even with the recent announcements of $80 games), retailing at 379.90 Euros (~$428 USD). 

Luckily, it's also available for $12.99 on PC/Steam and $14.99 on PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, which is a much more affordable way to play. I ended up getting it on PS5, since I prefer to play on console and I find the PS5 easier to natively screen record on than Xbox.

GladMort is a "fantasy medieval action-platformer" which pretty much means it plays like Ghouls & Ghosts, complete with double-jump, but it's nowhere as punishing as the Capcom classic (however, it's still challenging compared to most modern games).

The story of GladMort speaks of a "terrible calamity" in the kingdom, which forces the king to call about the black knight GladMort, who isn't necessarily a good guy, but desperate times call for... a black knight. As you might imagine, the plot isn't too important to the overall gameplay, but it still forms a nice backdrop for your quest as the black knight.

RETRO ROOTS

GladMort wears its retro-inspiration on its sleeve, from the fact that it's a literal NEOGEO game, and it clearly draws inspiration from the classic games on the console, but it is also obviously inspired by Capcom's Super Ghouls & Ghosts game on the Super NES.

Super Ghouls & Ghosts

While all of the Ghosts & Goblins / Ghouls & Ghosts games share elements in common, the elements found in GladMort seem to most closely align with those in the Super NES version: Super Ghouls & Ghosts. This is especially evident in the character's double jump, which practically seems like a carbon copy of the double jump in Super Ghouls & Ghosts. Of course the weapon upgrades, and the way the character loses his suit of armor when hit are clearly from it as well, but the double jump is the main difference in the Super NES game versus the others in the series. 

NEOGEO Platformers

While Magician Lord is not very similar to GladMort, the large colorful sprites, detailed backgrounds and smooth animation are all hallmarks of NEOGEO platformers, and GladMort continues this fine tradition.

REVIEW

Gameplay & Mechanics

GladMort is heavily stylized after Super Ghouls & Ghosts, and this directly impacts how its gameplay is designed. The double-jump may seem a bit floaty at first, but just get used to its timing, as it is part of the overall strategy of gameplay. Jump at the wrong time and you are certain to either jump straight into an enemy or come down and land on one. Overall, given the homage this game is designed around, its gameplay is very good and does a great job echoing Super Ghouls & Ghosts design, while incorporating its own unique elements; it feels both familiar and fresh at the same time. It can also be fairly difficult at points by modern standards, although it is nowhere as difficult as its inspiration. Players seeking a Super Ghouls & Ghosts-type difficulty may be disappointed, as GladMort is nowhere as difficult as that, but modern gamers will likely find GladMort to be challenging enough to be interesting.

 

Visuals & Art Direction

The visuals in GladMort look really good. The characters are well drawn and animated, and the environments and backgrounds are colorful and totally look at home as a NEOGEO game. This gives a look that harken's back to the days of the 16-bit gods: the SNES and Sega Genesis, but given this is a NEOGEO game, it looks better than anything on either of those platforms. 

GladMort also has a bunch of screen filter options that you can switch between easily by just pressing the left and right bumper buttons (sometimes too easily, as I've accidentally switched filters in the midst of frantically pushing buttons to attack or avoid enemies). Personally, I like the curved CRT filter the best, but there are quite a few good ones to choose from.

Audio & Music

The music in GladMort is really good. I'm not looking to rush out and buy the OST, but it certainly fits the action and bring you right back to the heyday of 90s gaming, in a good way.

Story & Narrative

While games like GladMort don't really need a story, the backstory and plot in the game are interesting enough to frame the action in an interesting way. Is it anything you'll likely remember or continue thinking about once you roll credits? Probably not. But its certainly good enough that it feels right at home with other games from the 90s. 

Technical Performance

Given this game was designed to be playable on NEOGEO hardware, and I played it on the PlayStation 5, you can probably imagine that I didn't have any issues performance-wise. That being said, I also haven't read about any performance issues on the Switch or other platforms as well, so you're probably safe in that department.

Innovation & Originality

GladMort is not likely to get many point for originality, but lets face it, that's likely not why you are interested in it. The way GladMort incorporates elements from Super Ghouls & Ghosts is well done, and having a new NEOGEO game in 2025 is pretty damn cool, so while nothing about the game may be that innovative, we could certainly use more games like this. 

 

Value

As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, GladMort costs $12.99 on PC/Steam and $14.99 on Switch, PlayStation and Xbox. That seems like a good deal, and is certainly priced right considering the value it delivers relative to other similar retro-styled games. Now, if you decide to purchase the physical NEOGEO cart, it will set you back 380 Euros, which is about $428 in the U.S. That is on par with old school NEOGEO game releases, but WOW is it expensive. I'm sure collectors will be interested in it, but that seems like a pretty niche audience. I'm just glad the developers made the other releases priced at the levels they did.

 

  OVERALL SCORE: 8  

 

Overall, my experience with GladMort was really good. I had to go back and remind myself what some of the other games for the NEOGEO looked like, and GladMort really nails the visual aesthetic of the console. I actually like the fact that the game is somewhat challenging, but nowhere as difficult as Super Ghouls & Ghosts. I'm sure some hardcore gamers will be put-off by its lack of extreme difficulty, but if you're a semi-casual who liked the idea of Super Ghouls & Ghosts, but just found it too darn hard, you may really like this game.

CRITIC'S CORNER 

In looking at other critic reviews and user ratings, the scores for GladMort are all over the place.

(EG's score compared to other publications - raw score quoted then followed by normalized score out of 10, if applicable) 

• Gamatroid: 8/10
• Gamereactor UK: 4/10
• PlayStation Store: 4.33/5 (8.6/10)
• Xbox Store: 3.2/5 (6.4/10)
• Steam: 90% positive (9/10)

 

GAMEPLAY 

You can watch my playthrough on PlayStation 5 in the video below: