Question: When is a plane not a plane? Answer: When it's a UFO firing a laser, or a kamikaze ballerina, or a floating brick propelled by bullets, or a nuclear-equipped mecha-dolphin, or, or, or. Shorter answer: When it's in Luftrausers, where a sense of acrobatic grace and colossal amounts of customization are king.

Luftrausers is the updated version of Vlambeer's Luftrauser, a free arcade shooter in which players fly the unfriendly skies and attempt to take out as many fighter planes and boats as they can before meeting their inevitable demise. The two games share the same control scheme - up to boost, left and right to rotate, X to fire - but beyond that, the upgrades make Luftrausers feel totally distinct.

You'll begin Luftrausers as a simple fighter plane - you have a basic machine gun, a healthy frame, and a not-too-fast, not-too-slow engine. You'll launch from the deck of a submarine and engage in dogfights to take out enemy fighter planes, jets, boats, submarines, battleships, laser-spewing ... things, and a blimp so big it fills the screen.