Mobile Game Review of "Journey to the Center of the Earth"

Yet another remake of an old movie, or should we say... reimagining? The big-screen version is kinda campy fun for kids, but the game... well, let's just say it is lousy.

The game follows the plot of the movie, but turned some sequences into gameplay sequences. There are basically four minigames: rappel, vehicle, dodge-the-dino, and hop. Vehicle was reused twice with slight variations. Everything else was used only once.

Rappel: while rappelling down this huge lava tube, you need to dodge left and right, or "hop" to avoid hitting the rocks (that look like SHELVES) while avoiding falling rocks. There's really no need to move left and right other than to avoid rocks. Just "hop" periodically and there's nothing else to do. You have 5 lives, hit anything and you lose one.

Vehicle: you control a mine-cart, a mine-train, or the raft, and you need to negotiate each corner at the optimum speed... By pressing the required key at the right time, but NOT ahead of time. It's basically a SUPER-SLOW version of Dance-Dance-Revolution. Every mistake you make, you slow down. If you miss too many, you won't be able to make jumps over chasms and such. Fortunately, making the right choice speeds you up (!). Id you die you have to play the whole level ALL OVER.

Dodge-the-dino: well, there has to be a dino chasing scene... Since that was in the movie. In the game, you are at the bottom of the screen, and you see this huge dino head just behind you. Your objective is to jump over or run around obstacles. If you hit an obstacle you lose a life. Lose all lives and it's time to restart the level.

Hop: worst game of the bunch. You basically can jump straight ahead, left, or right. Don't hesitate as it means you won't reach the next rock. Aim for the wrong rock and it's too late (some rocks disintegrate as you land on it). Aim off and it's too late. You have 5 lives to make it all the way to the end. Argh!

Graphics are below normal to par, no likeness of the actors are used except in very generic terms. Music is annoying as heck, and there really isn't much game play at all. At the end, you are simply prompted to try again to beat the previous high-score. Why should I even bother?

Rating: 4 out of 10
Pros: Covers most of the exciting scenes in the movie
Cons: The movie is much more exciting than the game