There was a time when air battles were not fought between spaceships loaded with colorful laser guns. Instead, pilots used old planes and machine guns, and needed to be really quick and skillful if they wanted to survive.

This is precisely the setting you'll find in Aeronauts, a fun online game in which you'll engage in fierce air battles against people from all over the world. Before that, however, you'll need to go through a series of lengthy tutorials which, although a bit boring, are absolutely necessary if you want to master your plane's movements, tricks and special twirls – something that will prove essential to achieve victory.

The game can be controlled either with the keyboard of the mouse. I personally prefer the latter, but you can choose whichever suits you best. The good thing is that you're given the opportunity to test both controlling methods before making up your mind.

Being an online game, Aeronaut has a heavy social component. Too bad we couldn't fully test online characteristics due to the game's frequent connection issues – probably to be blamed on our side though. An even more interesting feature is the possibility to customize both your pilot and your plane with nicer apparel, more powerful weapons or even new skills.

Aeronauts features attractive graphics, not in a realistic style though, but following a more cartoonish style instead. Music adds the final touch to a game that, despite being difficult to control at the beginning, is really fun to play.

Aeronauts is a very original online game that give a twist to the typical air battle, presenting you with old planes and skilled pilots fighting for survival in a parallel world.