Great Thing is a large "schmup" boss. He very fittingly is the last boss you face in every game he's appeared, except Darius Twin. He has a name typical of the Darius series, and is probably the second most frightening boss in the series.

Cameos

A pink sperm whale, bereft of cannons, is the first stage boss of the entertaining platformer The New Zealand Story released by Taito Corporation in 1990. A relative of Great Thing also makes an appearance as a boss in the dojin shoot'em up Messier-The Ultimate Destructive Device.

Game Patterns

a. Darius

The worst part about Great Thing is that he fights very recklessly, although he does attack in an order. First he fires his front cannons and launches anchors from his head. Then, he uses his laser and launches an Orca from his mouth. The Orca will explode into a three-bullet arc aimed at you. He then will attack simultaneously with his anchors (from the top AND bottom), and may or may not fire a rotating drill from his forehead. Gaming Hint: A good place to be is roughly in line with the mouth so that you can destroy the killer whale as soon as it surfaces.

b. Darius Twin In Darius Twin, 'Great Thing' is renamed 'Hyper Great Thing'. Essentially he is the same old cachalot, except that he now has a slow circular path he moves about. This means that you don't always have to evade his attacks. But don't relax...his attack is as relentless as before. And, as in Super Darius, since the screen is smaller and (this is unique to H.G.T.) he moves all over it, you have less elbow room and can get crushed by him. But don't be discouraged too much.

c. Darius Gaiden

Darius Gaiden's Great Thing is easily the hardest so far. Guns are what Great Thing starts things off with. He uses some horizontal lasers plus little fishes (descendants of the killer whales of before) which fire their own horizontal lasers. Gaming Hint: Try and stay in line with them as they require a few shots to go down and their lasers can catch you easily.{End Hint) One of the cannons on Great Thing's back then sprays you continously with laser beams. Weave a bit so that there is place between each stream of shots to move through. Eventually you will see his middle cannon charge up. At this point, try and stay as far to the left and high as possible too. Then, the cannon fires a deadly laser a bit slowly so that you can move below it. Now move forward and upwards slowly and jerkily so that the laser follows you as such. It probably fires more for a time period, rather than to make a full sweep. You then move to his tail, where he throws anchors and bullet arcs at you. As Great Thing pulls back, he then fires two balls from his ventral cannon which implode buildings below and the debris can harm you. Then come the drills as before, but they release bullet arcs if you attack them. He then starts up a 90-degree laser from the cannon above his eye. It is very important to stay above him while you dodge it, otherwise he can crush you from above. Eventually, you fly over him and a cannon near to his tail fires three laser beams while he constantly launches anchors. This is pretty much his first attack cycle, which lasts as long as most of his cannons are still on him. Once all of them have gone, he then starts to launch a massive seven-bullet arc stream from new cannons in his side; however, it can be easily dodged by simply flying over his head and hitting him from there. Things move back to the tail and he fires homing lasers. And these attacks cycle almost endlessly, with some drills or little fishes from Great Thing's head to liven up the monotony.

Similarities Between Animals

~ Sperm Whale ~ Narwhal