I found out it is possible to blow up some tiles that you are normally not suppose to be able to get. Ends up not being useful however due to it taking 7 explosives to go the bottom left route with it, when the intended path optimally only needs 6.

See here.

Could be useful if you get a really trolly pattern from him. Sadly, wouldn't be much use for the NES run, as you never get there with enough HP. Also, I'm fairly sure the NES version has one less "set" of blocks - I'd have to check though. My NES route to sub 30 is going to be skipping the helm, sword and shield, without the safety of the Genesis HP value wrap. Pretty low success rate, but I don't think there is another 2:30 to save on the other route unless you get THE perfect run.