WP reports:
''Journey to the Center of the Earth is an Nintendo DS-exclusive title, which is peculiar since movie tie-in games tend to be released for every platform known to man. It plays out as mostly a 3-D platformer, albeit not a very well-designed one. You take on the role of any of the three main characters from the movie - Hannah, Sean or Trevor - and you can switch between them at any time. Each has his or her own uses, which the game makes sure you use frequently; Sean can climb walls, Hannah can throw rope, and Trevor can plant explosives as you hop around the levels that actually look pretty good for a DS game.
Switching between the characters is an easy task, but other than their skills, there's nothing to distinguish them. None of the characters have any personality, all play exactly the same, and there's no reason to play as any of them other than occasional moments where you need their skills. All the characters look like a low-end Nintendo 64 game, and they only barely resemble their movie counterparts.
They sound even worse. Hearing the sound effects each character makes is the only reason I would ever change characters. The sound design in Journey is abysmal and reaches the point of being so bad that it's good - during the first few levels, anyway, and then it starts to get on your nerves. You'll laugh at just how bad the sound effects are. The sound of a sword flying through the air is clearly someone saying, "Whoosh" into a microphone. The three characters' death cries have to be some of the least menacing death cries of all time.
Faring slightly better but still quite horrendous is the soundtrack. While it's very clear that the developers were trying to create an epic-sounding soundtrack, all you get is a minute-long loop for each stage that either goes unnoticed or becomes annoying enough to turn down the sound.''
Shane Wodele reports:
''Being new to the DS scene, it's very hard to go from "next-gen" to the small screen. Even when I know that I'm not going to get the same quality out of DS titles, I can't help but feel extremely disappointed with Human Soft's Journey to the Center of the Earth for Nintendo's newest handheld system. The reality is that the 3D elements of the game (which entail about 90% of the gameplay) are bland at best, and terrible for any kind of small details.
While making your way to Earth's center, the 3D levels of this platformer contain too many of the same colors, sometimes making it difficult to distinguish differences in terrain, which in turn makes it hard to see paths sometimes (that, combined with the camera being zoomed in a bit too far). In addition, the graphics are extremely pixilated, making the backgrounds become washed out and the close-ups nothing more than a bunch of square spots on the screen. Some of the animal characters do look decent, but even the three main characters are a bit low on the polygon side, and have somewhat cheesy animations at times.''
Let's face it, most games connected with the release of a major motion picture just aren't as good as what people see in the theaters. Some games do manage to bring something new and exciting to consoles or handhelds while others simply rush out games that leave gamers with a bad aftertaste. Unfortunately, there are also movie tie-in games that show a lot of promise but just feel like a rushed experience. Journey to the Center of the Earth for the Nintendo DS isn't a bad movie-licensed game and there are times when it shows its true potential but it is limited by many features that hold it back.
Gameplay: 6.0
Graphics: 7.0
Sound: 6.5
Difficulty: Medium
Concept: 6.0
Overall: 6.0
Gamers Universe writes: "Perhaps the one glaring mistake that Nintendo made when designing the DS can be found in the underwhelming graphical and processing power available to developers. Not quite limited enough to necessitate a two-dimensional approach, nor powerful enough to allow for convincing 3D - shovelware now prevails; with cheap and easy 3D action titles making up the vast majority of the ever-expanding software library. It isn't pretty, and it isn't befitting a console manufacturer that used to have deeper roots than anybody else in quality assurance, but what can we do? If people keep buying absolute dross like Journey to the center of the earth, then the cycle will never come to a halt. So please don't."
