ZeroTolerance writes: "If only their names were Bill and Lance.
The slew of licensed movie games continues with Fox and Playlogic's latest tie-in game Aliens in the Attic. I have groaned more often than not that summer is always chock full of these types of games, and in recent years they have been getting increasingly better. Aliens in the Attic is a Contra clone built for the kiddies that involves some useless touch screen mechanics. If you can get past the generic dialogue, stagnant level design and effortless difficulty you have one of the more enjoyable licensed DS titles to come along in a while. Surprisingly I found myself enjoying the shooting and boss encounters a little too much at times.
As I mentioned you assume control of all three protagonists from the movie, and can swap between them at will using the shoulder buttons. Each one specializes in specific attributes for example Hannah can double jump but not attack, Jake is basically the soldier and can take more damage, while Tom is the brainpower of the operation. The quintessential character combination lends itself well enough to the game that you never feel forced to stick with one character too long. Most of the time you will be fine with Tom or Jake, but the game throws enough platforming at you to utilize Hannah enough to not make her feel worthless."
SFX-360 writes: "I remember back in the third grade, Mrs. Kowalski assigned the class our first real book report. You had to write a one-page summary with a pencil on paper about the book and draw a picture to go with it. I read Kittens in the Kitchen by Ben E. Baglio. Even at the tender age of 7, I knew this guy had to be ripping somebody off with what he wrote just by the way he titled his kiddie chapter books. There was Pony in the Pantry, Beagle in a Backpack, Owl in an Office, and so on. Sitting down to play the video game adaptation of the feature film Aliens in the Attic, I thought of Mr. Baglio immediately and wondered about the hours ahead of me..."
GameZone writes: "Aliens in the Attic is built from an established blueprint, but it dilutes its best elements to the point of sterility. Young children may enjoy it, but if you're old enough to walk to school, this game won't do enough to keep your interest".
It's competent (and the 3D bosses look nice), but there's nothing going on here that GameCritics hasn't seen a million times before. While the game is a decent way to kill a few hours, "It's better than they thought it would be" is faint praise in this case. They can't recommend it, especially considering the technical snafus they had. Keep that attic boarded up, folks.
