Quick Tips November 2021

Homebrew Cave Story MD (Mega Drive)

• gameid: 13943
• achid: 157124
• Tip by: Dimedime

First of all, you'll want to turn on CS+ speed in the Config menu. The timer seems just a bit more lenient with this option enabled. Second of all, the Spur is by far the easiest weapon to run this with. You don't have to spend time collecting EXP to level it up. Even better, in this port, the Spur lasers can shoot through walls (somewhat), completely eclipsing the Snake in this regard. This has uses in B3F, where you can activate some of the Deleets behind the walls early, and you can hit the two Deleets at the end at the same time. You have to shoot at a certain distance from walls for the lasers to pass through them.

You can generally get by with soloing Hell with just the Spur. Its damage output is just that good, and it even charges a bit faster here compared to other versions of Cave Story. In addition to its utility in shooting through walls, the Spur is also your best boss-killing weapon. You can fire off Lv.3 or max level lasers pretty quickly, and all the endgame bosses have really big hitboxes such that the Spur does massive damage to them. Just a couple more optimizations to note:

• You can still damage boost to fall down the hole before the Heavy Press does.
• For Ballos's second phase, you'll want to stand next to his eyes before shooting (the Spur) for maximum damage.
• The hitbox for Ballos's last phase is rather wonky in this port, he only seems to be vulnerable near his eye level. This part will probably take the longest out of all the bosses.

Good luck!

Hack Smash Remix (Nintendo 64)

• gameid: 15964
• achid: 173156 173186
• Tip by: Chauckles

Remix's 1P modes can be pretty brutal on Very Hard. Clearing them with a character that lacks half of their moveset or an effective way to return to the stage sounds even more brutal. Luckily, it's not nearly as scary as it sounds. For these challenges, I recommend Polygon Kirby. He has several midair jumps that make up for his lack of recovery options, and most of his normal attacks are pretty good.

Generally, you'll want to use his forward smash (Good range, moves Kirby forward which confuses the AI), neutral/back air (Also good range & knockback), and down air (Hitting the AI offstage with this confuses them, often causing them to drop to their death). His up air can be used to instantly delete foes in multi-man battles, but be warned that you WILL get hit out of it. Also don't forget that Polygon fighters have additional color options in this hack, so make sure to pick a cool one.

Most importantly though is up tilt. Up tilt is your lord and your master. This unassuming backwards kick is extremely fast, deals a ton of damage, and combos into itself the majority of the