Loved this game but cant remember the title. Old Skool Games

[iGuest 3]

Loved this game but cant remember the title. Old Skool Games

Hi all. Please help me remember this old 2 player game. Any info is appreciated.

First, it starts with a blue and white planet. Moments later a  space ship flies towards the planet coming from the top of the screen, followed by another ship coming from the bottom of the screen.

The gameplay is as followed : 

It is a side-scroller game where the ship in question becomes a robot.There are two button, one which fires foward and another button that allows the robot to turn and fire behind it.In order to power up, certain enemies drop power icons that can be shot in order to change its type. After a certain amount of changes, it becomes a super icon, usually a glowing star of some sort which grants you one of the most powerful weapons in the game. Also, picking up the same type of icon of the weapon you are currently using makes your current weapon more powerful.Weapon types for example are, straight shots (which can grow from 2 beams to about 5 beams), tri-shots (one straight beam and two others at a 45 degree angle) and a heavy beam bazooka (long bright blast, slow firing). There are 2 super weapons which are, Dual Rapid Fire beam (much like the straight shots only they are so close, they actually look like one single beam and each shot is like 3 times the power of the straight shot), and a Super Tri-Shot (this fires beams that look like brackets that go straight forward, straight up and straight down)Next, the special feature about this game is that the robots can join. If a player picks up the special icon. The robot transforms back into a plane and the other robot/ship whether or not there is a human player comes and merges with the other. Any of the ships may pick up the power-up. The one that picks it up gains control of the entire fusion. Two added bonuses gained is that the new robot can take one hit, which breaks them back to two separate individuals and while combined, each time you fire, it fires another weapon (which cannot be changed or upgraded) in all directions. If player 1 is in control, then it fires a shot straight out, if player 2 then it fires a short ranged boomarang. If 2 players are playing then during the joining, the main player controls the robot and the second player fires the secondary, all direction weapon.

Thats all I can remember. Hope it helps. I really hope someone remembers the name. Thats all I ask for. Tanks in advance.

-question by Aerique