The first time I ran into Storm Causer, it was through a drunken orgy of credit-feeding, and it almost tempted me to baptise him Storm Pussy. Of course, I later ran into him the hard way, and I realise that Golden Ogre was probably just the larval form of this guy. No, wait, ogrefish larva were so distinct from their adult forms that they were thought of as separate species....
Following the bottom-most path in the layout of levels leads you to a stage set in the sky amidst rather stormy weather. Eventually you reach the 'eye' of the putative storm, and Mr Causer runs out of the clouds to meet ya.
Think I missed an attack here, can't be sure.
Tips:Being the obliging fellow that he is, Stormwatch lets us feel at home with the Halitosis Beam of Death (TM). It wouldn't be fair on our parts just to have that, so he diversifies things by transforming one of his fins into a cannon which has a field day spraying bullets on us. It's important to stay (if I remember correctly) above the beam, as it gives you more elbow room to dodge. He then runs away into the distance (coward!), but wait. It's not a case of 'blood will tell'...he starts to unload fireballs at you from a distance! I've only found a vague clockwise motion and the importance of constant motion the best way to dodge him. Don't panic-bomb here; it ain'
t worth it, dude. After a round or two of this, Storm Causer returns to face you and starts SPRAYING you with blue lasers. If that wasn't enough, he lobs little bomblets at you too! Sob. I think he cycles a bit between these attacks here; my bad.
NOTE: In the eye of the storm, no one can hear your lamentation.
Still with us? Good. I must admit, though, Rain Man makes good use of the whole screen in different planes to assault you. His next attack involves him soaring above you and out of view, and then lobbing a barrage of missiles (either a laBangaioh or Robotech) with 'dangerous' explosions to contend with. Nasty, nasty, nasty. The best way to weather this is to fly to the top of the screen as soon as he's flown off it, and then blow up the missiles as they come, moving left and right but not too much down (as this can end up trapping you between explosions). When Storm Causer returns into the plane of attack, his fin which previuosly transformed into a cannon does the dirty thing again and sprays bullets on you in the way that only Darius games can; the purple homing lasers we've all grown to love so much keep you on your toes. Eventually he turns tail (and watch out for it) and fires four red lightning-ish beams from it. Try and slip between them and above him, for next his tail extends out to thmash you. Theere are more of the same homing lasers, but down worry too much about them; staying near the fin closest to the guy's head gives you total immunity (not the first blind spot in a Darius Gaiden boss). More cycling follows.
In the eye of the tornado...blow me away.And again. And again.
So...eventually we are treated to neater (for the casual viewer) attacks. Storm Causer moves back out of our plane as with the fireball attacks, but this time he fires a steady stream of bullets from ports on his side. This is kept at until he comes back into the plane of view. Dodge by a rough circular motion; I used a clockwise one but I don't know if it's the only way to do it.
Returning to face you, S.C. whips out his fin-cannon and the same little cannons on the body Golden Ogre had. The latter spray big bullets at you while the latter splits open and fires a four-way-laser. Try hard to get trapped between the two withering screens of fire (I like that sentence!) and continue firing at the mouth. Now, he either tries the missile attack (with the tail thingy too) again or goes to the 'serving machine' attack. This involves buckets of blue orbs which he whaps at you with his tail. They're destructible, but take a fair number of shots...be ready to panic-bomb.
Ms. Fossil? Are you looking?
More cycling between these and the missile attacks and we get the piece de resistance. Storm Causer shows us his slim profile (not recommended for anorexics) and opens out his scales to reveal five angled cannons. Each of these fires a diverging three-laser arc (still there?). Weave, weave, weave. Homing lasers are an issue here as well. I don't know if the bastard unloads any more attacks, because by then the panic bombing paid off (see above). Which led to a not-entirely-satisfactory ending. Great Thing's was better.
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