Either the second badge should be changed back to hard, or there should be an option for replaying specific levels to get missed coins, instead of having to replay the whole damn game.
A theory I just came up with: The Sivars were originally from X79-888's home planet.
They're from a poorer part of that world that had little to no contact with the more technologically-advanced nations, so they're clueless about AI and the causes of the human-droid war. But the droids didn't care: Their goal was to exterminate *all* humans, even the isolated tribes on the other side of the world.
All the Sivars knew was that these strange *creatures* showed up one day trying to murder them. The Sivars just assumed they were demons. This is hinted at by the Gnome in the Western Kingdom who asked X79-888 to re-disguise himself.
Indeed, all the episodes are interconnected. And since Droid's Quest and Red Peril take place after the events of Elemental Link, they make more sense after playing Elemental Link :)
For anyone else who had trouble finding it: Three rooms to the right of the starting location, there is a room with an ice door, that at first glance appears to have no switch to open it. Once you have acquired to the ability to shoot fireballs, go to that room and kill the largest enemy, which will uncover the switch. Go through the ice door, and the diagonal shooting power-up will be in a nearby room.
He wazn't there :(