Serves you right for not doing as you're told. Bad Adam.

If it's your first time playing, you might want to restart the game. Bosses in Hard Mode are nightmarishly hard (they're faster, deal more damage and even have more powerful attacks). Definitely hardcore stuff better left for your second playthrough.

Now I'm glad I loaded my game after I read it twice.

Oops, never mind. I must have not saved after doing it. Reason I thought it was getting harder is I was in a new area I don't think I was meant to be in yet. Crisis averted.

After having a few problems with the controls in the beginning myself, I now think the controls and physics compliment the leveldesign. I can rush through the screens now with relative ease.

And DAAAAMN! I read that tablet twice! I am in HARD MODE now! And I thought the complete transformation of the ruins was part of the normal game... Every screen suddenly had more monsters and new monsters! Now you know (and I know) why I'm still stuck at the lizard boss and can't bring him down, not even with 150 Shuriken.
Should I delete my 25 hours file and start again?

SUCH A NAAASTY TRAP!!

From what I've seen in the PC version, I would say that the normal mode is more than hard enough. And the WiiWare version is supposedly even more difficult (in terms of boss fights), from what I've heard. I would start from scratch in order to avoid total frustration at the end of the game. Better to restart now than with 90% progress.

Btw, does anyone know how to get the Holy Grail? I've been searching for an hour or two, but haven't been able to find/get it yet. I'll try again in a bit, but I might need help.

It's in the first area (inside the ruins), I think in a blue chest at the elevator.

How did I not think to defeat both of the red skeletons?

I can't beat the lizard on the kart. Do I need to find more health? I already beat the snakes. Kinda stuck. Were are the knives... I only got a coupe things. Tell me all the things you got.

@KaiserGX:
The pyramid/lizard is not the second area/boss (although it was the first boss I encountered). I found the second "beatable" boss in the giants colosseum... I'm not sure if you need an item from another area first, if i remember correctly you just have to puzzle around with the clock and visit a few places.

But if you want to beat the lizard early I'd say probably more health, yeah, and more shuriken, full pistol.

As for me I got the knives a bit later. I found another weapon first.

If you want it: SPOILER

You can find the much better axe in the Moon Pyramid.

Haven't been there yet but I will looking around the giants. Thanks.

SPOILERS:
Find the skeleton that says something like "I found a secret exit!", then walk through the fake wall to its right...

I replayed the game and stayed away from that hellish hard mode stone tablet.
In my first game I activated hard mode without knowing accidentally (and at the earliest time possible) and played up to the third and fourth boss.

Now the second boss (Giant) was a breeze, and the third boss (Lizard) I crushed on my first try. Hard mode was great for practising.
I even defeated the fourth boss (awesome fight) and openend up the doors to the darkside now..... oooh.

Yeah, and I replayed the 25 hours in 2 hours 38 min.

I have a simple question: Isn't La mulana a (console-crashing) bug fest! Because I heard some versions of Cave story had nasty glitches!

Bugs in La-Mulana?
Never encountered one, not a single glitch or anything in the slightest in the WiiWare version.

All around extremely polished, apart from some minor oldschool framerate drops when too many enemies are on screen in hard mode.
I guess the few spelling errors on the old engravings don't count, since you're using an in-game glyph reader / translator.

PS. Cave Story never had bugs in the EU version. The NA version has been fixed and updated long time ago.
Apart from that NICALIS/Studio Pixel is not EnjoyUp/NIGORO and NIGORO had more than enough time to polish the finished game until gold was shimmering through.

@KaiserGX: When I was replaying the game I found the Knife you were looking for.

Little SPOILER:
From the pyramid save point one screen down and one screen right.

Temple of the Sun is now Temple of the Catball.

I've honestly seen most of a Let's Play of the original version, yet the only thing I remember beyond the Surface so far are 2 puzzles. Like not even the solutions, I mean nothing in this is familiar besides I guess the music. I'm not sure if I have a bad memory all of a sudden or if they changed the areas of the game.

Another fair WARNING:
I've been checking the GameFAQs forums every now and then, and apparently, there's one part of the game where activating the wrong switch makes the game permanently unwinnable. It appears to be an unintentional design flaw, which seems to have been patched in the PC Windows version of the game. The switches in question are in the icy world, in a room that has two large ice blocks that can be dropped using two switches located in plain sight in the same room. If you don't drop the bottom-left block first, you could potentially lock yourself out of your game forever. I can't confirm it myself, because I was lucky enough to activate those two switches in the right order when I first found them.

Out of the game again....
And I thought if I return later it will reset, or at least that there's another solution.. but man... a bug? ....not again....
Isn't there an item somewhere so I can fly or climb or warp or get somehow up there?

****!
Another 5 hours wasted!
That's 30 hours now and I'm back on a new file....
Leave you guys for a while, hope you beat the game.

And a trap I discovered that will not reset.... I don't know exactly if it's supposed to be like that, but I guess we explorers should help each other out....
In the lava world on the leftmost wall where fire spits out there is a passage to the left that leads to a room full of boxes and then another screen to the left to a miniboss. when you kill the miniboss and advance to next room to the left there is a nasty trap. I'd warp back and save. Couldn't find a solution. It always smashed me flat and when you activate one of those switches they don't seem to reset either. Fortunately I didn't save. But what am I talking about? All is lost anyway! La-Mulana, you cursed ruins!!!!!!!!!!

Edit: I remember another one. The first time you get into the Moon Pyramid. Somewhere on the upper right side, there is a big stone block that can fall down. It is needed to climb a ladder that is a shortcut to the Twin Towers. If you hit the wrong switch or something (I'm not sure) the block falls down to the lower ground, making it impossible to reach the Twin Towers from that side (but you can still access the Twin Tower from the lava pit). Just wanted you all to know about this as it was something I did right on my 1st attempt and then wondered about why the platform fell all the way down on my 2nd attempt.

Someone should make a DON'T DO THIS list for La-Mulana to keep me from endless pain.

Oh, what a great game this is!
It's EXACTLY what I want from a video game: the player can see one whole screen at a time, it's in 2D, there are tons of items to find, tons of traps to avoid, tons of riddles to solve, tons of puzzles to figure out, tons of action, tons of jumping around, it isn't linear and it isn't too easy or too impossible.

I played the original up to the point where I thought there was a glitch that didn't allow me to warp on certain places. I bought the WiiWare version and learned that in the end it was all about "the backsides" and I just needed an item that allowed me to warp between the backside places too. Well, although I like the original MSX-style graphics more, I think this version is more enjoyable to play as it's easier to change between items and the grapple claw jumping is way more tolerable in this version. That was a really tough thing to master in the original.

The Chamber of Extinction is a pain. I don't like to be forced to be constantly worried about the light going out again.

Yes. This is a place where you get only one shot to get the item. It was so in the original too. It's fully intentional.
With The Holy Grail I guess its possible to fail once if you have already revealed the weapon and happen to fall down. It's possible to still get the weapon and leave with the Holy Grail. But if you mess up by not being able to get up the first time the pillar rises, then you can't get the weapon without resetting. That weapon isn't necessary though.

I have read that there is a one chance in some place later in the game to reset one messed up puzzle. I recall there would a fairy somewhere who can do this, but the fairy can do this only once and only to one puzzle.

Edit: I remember another one. The first time you get into the Moon Pyramid. Somewhere on the upper right side, there is a big stone block that can fall down. It is needed to climb a ladder that is a shortcut to the Twin Towers. If you hit the wrong switch or something (I'm not sure) the block falls down to the lower ground, making it impossible to reach the Twin Towers from that side (but you can still access the Twin Tower from the lava pit). Just wanted you all to know about this as it was something I did right on my 1st attempt and then wondered about why the platform fell all the way down on my 2nd attempt.

I messed this up when playing the original, but it was possible to get up by using the Feather that allows double-jump. I don't know how it is in this version as I did it right this time.