Non-linearity in my opinion makes games better.

[Distant Star]

demonfox13 said:

TruckOSaurus said:

kitler53 said:
mario is linear - i was under the impression that one was a classic.

in fact, i would argue that non-linearity largely makes a game less popular. the majority of the gaming audience needs guidance on how to play or they will get lost, confused and then bored, frustrated.

Mario Bros. 3 is not linear. You can choose which stage you play and using power ups you can change how you play each stage

Still linear. You have to get from point A to point B and the only thing that would change would be finding the whistles. You still go from the left side of the screen to the right side of the screen whether it's from the top or the bottom. You always have to start from stage 1 and find the whistles in the same places. iirc there are 2 whistles in world 1, and 1 in world 2. There are the arbitrary 8 worlds and you cannot deviate from them no matter what. If you want to shortcut you ALWAYS HAVE to get at least 1 whistle in world 1, but then if you use it right away the game becomes even more linear for you. This hasn't stopped SMB3 from being my fav in the entire series though hands down.

Side scrollers are always linear is that really true?  Only SMB2 would be less linear in that case. I think he's right, it's about how you can play and not some navigational part of a game that defines linearity.