This actually DOES have upgrades. The three green bars on the corner of the hub called air time seem to fill up the longer you live. For each green bar, you get a now move like the flip kick. Also, rapidly tap the up arrow during your glide to constantly glide on and off, on and off, and you won't lose any height!
I agree with Errodrell. Dying has no penalties. It unbalances the game and doesn't even give you any reason to avoid any monsters other than wasting time.
Seriously needs a degrade button. I'm not going to check what all the stages for the credits are in the middle of the game, but if I got a chance at the end, I would probably check it! Same goes for avatar and ship graphics.