As you leave the theater, the sweet scents of butter-drenched popcorn and juicy hot dogs aren’t provoking the feral physiological response they usually do. You’ve just spent $30 taking your kids to see Aliens in the Attic — not to mention fill them with gummy worms — and you feel robbed by cheapjack animation, generic design, poor writing and overpriced cinema fodder.

Thankfully, there’s a silver lining. When the youngsters ask for the Aliens in the Attic video game for their Nintendo DS, your $30 will be better spent.

Barely.

Developed by Engine Software, Aliens in the Attic is rooted firmly within an unfortunate family tree — games based on mundane summer kids’ flicks. To its credit, the game does as much as possible with its very limiting template, but its intended audience and middling source material really hold it back. 

Aliens in the Attic tells the tale of the Pearsons, a family struggling with an extraterrestrial pest problem. Alien tenants bent on ruling the universe have occupied the attic of their vacation home, and it’s up to the Pearson children to evict the little green nuisances and save the planet. The game doesn’t do much to tell this story, however, and unless you’ve seen the film, its sparse attempts at storytelling leave much of the already thin plot to assumption.

It was probably a good choice given the film’s awful writing and design, but the game’s narration leaves much to be desired. So does its gameplay.

Like most film-based games, Aliens in the Attic isn’t particularly ambitious, and it doesn’t try to rotate any wheels, let alone reinvent them. The game is essentially a traditionally styled action platformer, but without the difficulty so customary for the genre. Imagine a classic side-scrolling shooter like Mega Man or Contra without the perilous platforming, bountiful baddies and dire difficulty, and you’ll have an idea what to expect from Aliens in the Attic.

Of course, you’ll also have an idea why the game never quite manages to capitalize on its modest potential. It has platforming, but it’s painfully simple and offensively inoffensive. It has enemies, too, but at no point will you feel threatened by what is firing back at you. Indeed, for the vast majority of its short duration, Aliens in the Attic feels empty, hollow and a little too easy.

It makes sense given its audience, but this design results in a game too undemanding, uneventful and uninteresting to appeal to anyone else.

I promised a silver lining, though — your youngest kids should like it. This game won’t offer much to even a slightly experienced preteen gamer, but if little Johnny loved Aliens in the Attic, he’ll probably feel the same way about the video-game adaptation. Despite its weak storytelling and watered down design, Aliens in the Attic is a competent and well-made game for kids, an electronic set of training wheels until they’re ready for the likes of Contra.

They’ll be trained well, too, because the game actually controls well. Move your character with the directional pad, fire by hammering the Y button, aim with said d-pad and jump with the B button — it’s pretty standard stuff, but for the most part, blasting down these aliens is a responsive experience.

Aliens in the Attic teaches the fundamentals of basic video-game logic, too, by giving players three characters between which they can switch on the fly. Eldest son Jake is the strongest of the group, so he can easily move heavy objects and brandish large weapons. Tom is the honor student, and only he knows how to use the game’s most advanced gadgets and gizmos. Young Hannah, meanwhile, can jump much higher than her brothers and is tiny enough to crawl into otherwise unreachable rooms and passageways.

It’s not exactly brain-bending stuff, mind you. Situations in which these special skills are necessary are obvious, but to its credit, Aliens in the Attic uses them to add small amounts of strategy to its rudimentary puzzles, a welcome addition that diversifies the game’s otherwise repetitive action.

But again, barely.

The game looks better than you’d expect on the Nintendo DS, perhaps the most surprising aspect of the game given the movie looked as though it was designed by art school fail-outs. Testifying to the “well-made” assessment, it sports a few nice effects, especially in terms of explosions and lighting. The environments are mostly vacant, but they’re colorful and visually pleasing.

Despite all the game does well, however, it just doesn’t do enough. Faced with levels filled with more empty space than enemies and objects, Aliens in the Attic almost feels unfinished at times, as if Engine Software forgot to add bad guys. It’s built from a derivative blueprint, which would’ve been fine had its execution been better, and too often feels as hollow as a jack-o-lantern, lacking the guts that would’ve widened this movie-based game’s appeal.

Would I recommend Aliens in the Attic? It depends — how old are you?

Gameplay: 6.0
Aliens in the Attic employs a standard control scheme that plays quite well, but unfortunately, there isn’t much gameplay for the controls to facilitate.

Graphics: 7.0
The art style and character design is forgettable and generic, but chalk that up to the film’s designers, not the game’s. On the Nintendo DS, Aliens in the Attic doesn’t look bad, sporting a few nice effects and colorful environments.

Sound: 5.5
Common garden-variety elevator music accompanies you on your journey, music probably better stored inside a box in the very attic you’re expunging.

Difficulty: Easy
Appropriate for its intended audience but also limiting that audience’s size, Aliens in the Attic is just too undemanding, uneventful and uninteresting. It’s certainly not going to test your skills, but for the young, it may teach them.

Concept: 4.0
Given the generic design and concept upon which the game is based, one can hardly fault it for being such a boring, lackluster experience. But it is.

Overall: 6.0
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.