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.

Adding to these animations are some audio clues that may have you laughing... especially the grunt when you're about to fall off the edge of a platform. However, most of the music and sound fx are decent, and add to the atmosphere of the on-screen action. Music will change depending on certain situations as well.

Like the movie of the same name, Journey to the Center of the Earth follows the adventures of three explorers, Trevor, Sean, and Hannah, to well, the center of the earth. The problem isn't necessarily the exploration in this DS title, it is instead getting to the center of the earth. Unfortunately, controlling our heroes easily prevents what could be a quick process, and converts it into a load of frustration instead. Numerous times (way too many to count), I found myself jumping off the platforms and into the great unknown because the translation into three dimensions doesn't allow for precise jumping and landing.

While it's likely not the fault of the controls themselves (although an analog stick would have been better), the camera becomes the culprit when plunging into infinite death because of it's inconsistency in different situations. At times, as the camera moves around corners, it will automatically keep your characters running in the same direction, which is, at first, hard to get used to. Once you do figure it out, Journey to the Center of the Earth throws a wrench into the works by NOT having your character auto-adjust, so jumping from platform to platform becomes a game of Russian Roulette instead - but again, only if the camera happens to be moving in a direction other than straight across.

Control issues aside, the actual gameplay of Journey to the Center of the Earth is quite repetitive, consisting of controlling the three heroes through the stages while keeping an eye out for runes and places to bring out the archeologist in you by digging up minerals and dinosaur bones along the way, with the runes being used to solve a final puzzle and gain access to the next level.

Each character has his or her own special skill as well. Trevor has the ability to place bombs which can destroy obstacles in the path or create walkways over chasms. Hannah is equipped with ropes and can throw a grappling hook at certain locations to gain access to Tarzan-like rope-swinging to cross a gap. Sean uses his apparent archeology experience by chiseling away at special sites along the way, and can also scale walls to higher areas of interest. While you will have to have these characters perform their tasks as needed, you do have the ability to switch between them on the fly.

Journey to the Center of the Earth also contains some mini-games of sorts thrown in to break up the repetition, which is a very welcome experience. These breakaways range from the rock climbing abilities of Sean to puzzle-solving and running for your life from dinos like the T-Rex.

A game being difficult is sometimes a welcome surprise these days, but artificial difficulty is nothing but a cheap way to extend playing time. While it may be unintentional, Journey to the Center of the Earth difficulty comes solely through frustrating controls in the platforming experience, and nothing more. Sometimes the puzzles can take a few tries, which is great and makes the gameplay a bit more enjoyable for this title (the true difficulty that I was talking about above), but the feeling of helplessness while jumping from one ledge to another is inexcusable. In addition, some of the levels (specifically the "being chased" scenes) require you to start from the beginning each time that you die, even though there are checkpoints scattered too frequently in the standard platforming levels.

If it weren't for these frustrating annoyances, Journey to the Center of the Earth may actually be too easy. Checkpoints are not only everywhere, but they also serve as save points when you quit the game, which can make the main portions of the game go by rather quickly, but at the same time it makes the game very accessible to pick up and play for only a few minutes at a time.

As previously mentioned, controlling your characters is sometimes very frustrating, or at least it becomes that way when a moving camera accompanies the timing of your jumps and landings. Analog controls would definitely serve this game better, because the precision of the D-pad just isn't there. It can also be frustrating when your heroes start sliding if they don't land quite right and the game can't determine if they should fall off an edge or not. In fact, the repetition and the frustration of the main exploration is passable, with the mini-game style events using the DS stylus being more entertaining (except for the countless chiseling to uncover artifacts).

Journey to the Center of the Earth has an overall feel of being rushed out the door to coincide with the release of the movie, unfortunately. With a little more time and a bit better design, it could have been an entertaining platforming title. It is very hard to recommend something that gets extremely repetitious. The only real thing changing between levels is the size of the dinosaurs, but they are never anything that a little button-mashing or clever hiding can't handle. Unless you're really into the movie or are just looking for another DS title to add to your collection, you may want to pass on Journey to the Center of the Earth, or simply rent it for a week to realize that the overall content of the game is just more of the same.