Good graphics. I don't mean realism, HD, and all that. But rather, a good style, and excellent use of color. If the colors are bland and lifeless, the game's world is, by extension, bland and lifeless.
Smooth animations. As a sprite artist, I can appreciate how much effort goes into making smooth animations, and I also know it's doable no matter what size graphics you're working with. For example, there's no excuse to only have 2 frames of walking animation for 16x16 sprites, when you've got plenty of space to do 6 frames to make it smooth, even for retro styled sprites. We aren't dealing with memory limitations anymore, so choppy animations turn me off.
Fitting and atmospheric music. It's one thing to have decent music, but it's another thing to have memorable music and music that greatly enhances every scene and map of the game. Look no further than the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics or Vagrant Story for examples of OSTs that blow many modern OSTs out of the water.
Perfect, responsive and fluid controls. There's no excuse for stiff controls in this day and age. The controls should reflect a player's common sense (like having the ability to duck, and attack in midair), and also not have any sort of response delay behind them. Actions should be swift and fluid. No choppy stiffness.
Story and characters to care about. For the games that are going to have a story in the first place, as this obviously wouldn't apply to arcade style games. If you're going to have a story, it might as well be a good one, and not one that'll have the player not caring about the people they're supposed to save in the game. Majora's Mask, Final Fantasy Tactics and Legend of Legaia are good examples that come to mind.
Addictive Gameplay. Good gameplay in general is what any game needs. But for a game to have you coming back for more, even after its completion, the gameplay itself would need to involve something that'd want you coming back for more, like Terraria.
Smooth animations. As a sprite artist, I can appreciate how much effort goes into making smooth animations, and I also know it's doable no matter what size graphics you're working with. For example, there's no excuse to only have 2 frames of walking animation for 16x16 sprites, when you've got plenty of space to do 6 frames to make it smooth, even for retro styled sprites. We aren't dealing with memory limitations anymore, so choppy animations turn me off.
Fitting and atmospheric music. It's one thing to have decent music, but it's another thing to have memorable music and music that greatly enhances every scene and map of the game. Look no further than the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics or Vagrant Story for examples of OSTs that blow many modern OSTs out of the water.
Perfect, responsive and fluid controls. There's no excuse for stiff controls in this day and age. The controls should reflect a player's common sense (like having the ability to duck, and attack in midair), and also not have any sort of response delay behind them. Actions should be swift and fluid. No choppy stiffness.
Story and characters to care about. For the games that are going to have a story in the first place, as this obviously wouldn't apply to arcade style games. If you're going to have a story, it might as well be a good one, and not one that'll have the player not caring about the people they're supposed to save in the game. Majora's Mask, Final Fantasy Tactics and Legend of Legaia are good examples that come to mind.
Addictive Gameplay. Good gameplay in general is what any game needs. But for a game to have you coming back for more, even after its completion, the gameplay itself would need to involve something that'd want you coming back for more, like Terraria.