What Draws You Toward A Game?

[Koh]

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.

[Gors]

Good Graphics. By good it mostly means an artstyle that matches with the gameplay and setting. This includes HD and realism when it's accounted, such as driving games. If the game is presentable, it is a plus. This also accounts for animation.

Music. A good soundtrack is enough to make me hooked on the game, especially if the whole game is already good to start with. Extra points if the music seems unfitting at first but turns out to be a great masterpiece.

Perfect, responsive and fluid controls. Let's not forget that an action that happens frames after the input is not stiffness - it requires extra thought to attack and defend, and how to deal with that. You should be able to do everything the game lets you to, while limiting you like a good game of chess. This also depends on the type and premise of the game.

Story and Characters. This adds up to the immersion but it's not all that needed. Sometimes a simple game with a genius gameplay works better than a try-hard story with convoluted stories and fanfic-quality characters. A joke-ish game such as Earthworm Jim is funny and charismatic even though the story is pretty much an excuse plot.

Addictive Gameplay. Simple gameplay that is tricky to master. Mobile puzzle games are king at this, its premise is easy enough to understand but the challenge is to use t to your favor. Sometimes a game that doesn't add things up exponentially can be an eternal classic: such is the case with Agar.io.

Let's not forget the main reason: fun. This should be the main item sought by the players, ALL times.

[Shade]

The Universe and General Design - A unique world always catches my eye, as do character designs. A good world keeps you invested through the creativity and atmosphere. It's where you get lost in the game. An out of the ordinary, yet well crafted character is something I've always really been drawn to, as well.

Fitting and Atmospheric Music - Stealing one of Koh's. Music can make the game, even if all other aspects are solid. I'm always brought back to Super Metroid for the atmosphere, and part of what makes that atmosphere so incredible is the amazing music. It's part of the essential immersion.

Gameplay - A no brainer, really. The world around you can be fantastic, but if the actual gameplay is bad, you won't be very interested. If a game looks fun to you, you'll buy it. It's as simple as that.

I guess that's about it. Fun to think about.

Also

Invisible post

[Omegajak]

Games that are fun (not tedious), charming, great to play and re-play.

I also like it when my protagonist is spunky, has a bad attitude, is good at something and is aware they are good at that something, but it's willing to put others before themself. Doesnt't hurt if they also have my faovrite color apparent in the character design (Royal Blue) Sonic and the first Musashi are alike a lot if approached from that regard so guys like them. It's proabably why I like the Ganbare Goemon series a lot too. I like games that are whacky but have their own notes of seriousness too them.

[Kriven]

I usually approach a game for the first time because of pleasing visuals and interesting art direction. After that, it's up to the music, story, or gameplay to keep me hooked. Sometimes I'll approach a game if the gameplay looks promising, even if the graphics don't... but usually this is a situation where I'm familiar with the developers, the franchise, or there was a demo.

[Ayumi Shinto]

Story(If it has/need one): It needs to be a story to intrigue me if it has one, or one that I would get enjoyment in playing it... especially if it's a new series or a series I never played before. No decent story, and it could be the "Game of the year" and chances are I would hate it.

Gameplay: This don't even need explanation but... whatever. The game needs to have a decent control set-up, or at least a way to customize controls in the way you would like. If I don't like the control layout and have no way of changing it, there will be some problems and possible frustrations with me and the game which might make me not want to play it anymore.
Next is how responsive the game it. The game can't feel clunky or like there's a delay in what supposed to happen between me and the screen. Some find that challenging, while I find it an annoyance.

Content(Talking about already within the game and not locked content): The game needs to have a decent amount of things to do in it as well. A game that I can beat in one sitting these days or even within a few days to a week, isn't a game I would be likely to bother with or care of touching the game. I will continue this onto the next one.

Replayability: With content, the game needs to have the right "stuff" to keep me playing it even after one playthrough. Maybe 2... 3.... 7... or even 15 playthroughs. Stuff to unlock is really great to have in games as it adds more to look forward to and try out as you continue playing. New Game+ games (when done right) also brings a lot of replay value to me as I do like to see what's new in the next playthrough or maybe see what I missed while not losing all of my progress from the last time.
I do not consider multiplayer as a replay value as after a while it does get boring as it usually never changes. The players do, yes, but not the game. Which brings me to...

DLC(Does not mean Disc-Locked-Content): If the game already plans for DLC to be day 1, it better be god DLC. I'm not a fan of microtransactions and will not support that kind of business set-up.
An example I can give of a recent game I would not touch like this would be Mortal Kombat X, while the last game I've played with DLC that I completely support is Hyrule Warriors. I say DLC in the way Hyrule Warriors was done is one of the best ways to do DLC in my opinion.

Customization: If a game has a creator within it, and a decent one where you can make your own character (and not an MMO game), chances are I will be really interested in checking the game out as soon as I can. I'm sure not many are too interested in custom characters as I am, but I always sees it as a way to get more into the story of the game. It feels as it's your game, your story, your world as you go into the game and play it as *insert name here* and not *Insert known protagonist* here after so long of doing so.

I'm sure there's more to it, but that's all my mind is telling me for now so I'll stop it here.

EDIT: As soon as I hit the post button I remembered one. Big one for me.

Music: The game needs to have really good music for me to even get into it or enjoy it long. Yes, I know I know... you can use your own music while you play a game if you like, but where's the enjoyment of that? Having to rely on your own music to enjoy the game makes the game not as enjoyable as it can be. It means the game has a flaw in itself which I can't agree with.
It's the same I would say as mods for a game. If I don't enjoy a game unless I need to install mods to enjoy the game, then I consider that game horrible and a waste of time. Not going to list the games I'm thinking of as this isn't a debate topic.

[Koopaul]

Depends on the genre I suppose. Different genre, different draws.

In case you didn't notice, I like cartoony colorful fantasy games. I do like games that are more gritty and real but they need a strong gameplay edge to draw me in.

As for gameplay, I can like a simple time waster or a more in-depth experience. If it's in-depth it needs a vibrant world to traverse and explore.

[TomGuycott]

I have a broad spectrum of things that draw me to games, although a lot of them bleed into each other, such as the first three I'm planning to list. There's going to be a lot of repeat game mentions, as these are features that make up some of my favorite games.

Excellent Boss Battles

Or at least a large quantity of good to mediocre boss battles. My enjoyment of a game is largely linked to how many boss battles there are, likely stemming from the fact that a lot of my early gaming experiences were games like Mega Man, Ninja Gaiden, and the like where difficult levels were topped off with a difficult boss battle. If I go into a game knowing that there is going to be no boss battles at all, I can quickly lose interest entirely. Games that give their bosses lots of flair and things like extravagant titles like in 3D Zelda games and the Souls series are welcome additions in my book.

Boss Centric Gameplay

There's a lot of different examples of this. My forefront example of this is always Alien Soldier for the Genesis and Megadrive (Actually I think it was never technically released on the Genesis). The game is almost entirely boss battles peppered with small runs of enemies in between solely for the purpose of replenishing your health. Its predacessor, Gunstar Heroes, was very similar, but it had fewer bosses and more standard enemy waves that had more difficulty to balance it out.

There are many other kinds of Boss Centric games, though. Games where there are a small number of huge bosses as main events that have very few in-between elements in the game like Shadow of the Colossus and the Monster Hunter series are a must. Even Punch Out could be considered somewhat similar to this concept, because it doesn't necessarily play like a traditional fighter, feeling almost like you are battling giant monsters in the boxing ring, so to speak.

Another good example is the No More Heroes series. In the first game, you have to rise ten ranks in the top ten assassins, and sure enough, there are exactly ten incredibly satisfying boss battles throughout the game. The sequel expands it even more, although you do not technically beat EVERY ranked assassin as a boss, but that's understandable as you are rising 50 ranks instead of ten.

Boss Rush Modes

This is kind of a hard thing for a game to advertise as it is usually an endgame bonus, but if I find out there is a Boss Rush mode in a game I usually pounce on it like crazy. One problem with some games I have, especially longer ones, is that if I want to refight a boss, I'd have to replay the entire game, and if I wanted to have access to them as much as possible, I'd sometimes make multiple save files just to have the chance to fight them again.

Boss Rush modes allow me to have access to the whole experience of bosses whenever I want, and it is a feature I wish was in more games. I know this is considered a sometimes irritating feature, especially when it is a mandatory part of the game, such as the ending of the Mega Man games. In those cases I enjoy it a lot, though, because when you have access to all weapons and knowledge of a boss' weakness, it is superbly satisfying to mop the floor with their sorry asses for all the trouble they put you through.

However, there are games where there is no real progression in player power, and the player is the same power at the end as they are in the beginning. An example would be Shatterhand for the NES, where you have to fight rematches of the bosses in the final level of the game, and you have limited lives (and continues? I forget). If you lose all your lives, you lose all your checkpoints and restart the stage, and there is NOT a checkpoint after each boss, and the bosses can be difficult. I can understand not liking THESE kinds of boss rush modes... but for some reason, I still love them.

The best examples of Boss Rush modes by far can be found in the Kirby and Castlevania series of games. I find it almost disappointing that Symphony of the Night, which is one of my favorite exploration-based Castlevanias, doesn't have a boss rush mode, as that didn't become common until closer to the GBA era of Castlevania.

High Difficulty, High Satisfaction

It's no surprise this is on my list given my obsession with From Software's series. Demons' Souls, Dark Souls and Bloodborne are all games I have played multiple times through (Well, in the case of Bloodborne I am partway through my second playthrough now, I just got it recently). The first playthrough is a gentle tip-toeing through the mechanics of the gameplay, learning the intricacies and nuances of the game bit by bit, being punished for silly mistakes and being rewarded for exploration and intuition.

Like with Boss Rushes at the end of Mega Man, going into these games with foreknowledge of what you are up against gives you an advantage and makes you feel accomplished when you slaughter an enemy that originally slaughtered you countless times. You learn from your mistakes and become stronger in the context of the game.

Other games, rather than relying on foreknowledge of what's to come (although it certainly helps), rely on twitch reflexes and quick thinking. The Donkey Kong Country series is a good example of that kind of difficulty curve, Diddy's Kong Quest being labeled as one of the harder entries in the series, and is my personal favorite out of the original trilogy.

I even have love for games that are obnoxiously hard like Battletoads. I've never beaten the game ever in my life, but part of me loves the game to death. I have fond memories of just trying level after level (usually with level skip and infinite lives cheats to alleviate stress), and I've beaten every level in the game at least once, just not in succession.

Casual Competetive Multiplayer

I don't get as many chances to play with people I know as I used to when I was younger, but I love to play games with friends whenever I can. The games can range from Mario Kart or Mario Party kinds of games, to fighting games like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. A solid multiplayer experience is a big draw to games, and sometimes I buy games anticipating having a fun time with a group of friends.

The main reason I am drawn to them is because, for one, you're able to just have fun with friends, and the second reason is it is usually a fun way to create funny stories. For example, I once found out that I was able to beat my friend who plays at fighting game tournaments at Street Fighter IV with Blanka against his second best character, but after wrecking him he double perfected me with his best character and we both had a good laugh. Another example happened this week, where me, my sister and her boyfriend were playing Mario Kart 8 in an effort to get Triple Stars on 200cc courses, and the race was so close down to the wire at the finish line against the computer that our shouting and laughter startled the man delivering a pizza for us that night. Things got real, bro.

My favorite multiplayer experience ever was with the SNES game Metal Warriors. It had a split-screen multiplayer mode where you could select any playable mech in the game and duke it out one on one. My brother and I put HOURS into that when we rented this game. The mechs all played differently with different perks (some more overpowered so we had sort of sibling arguements about which were off limits to play), and battles were heated, down to the wire, and loads of fun.

Energetic Music

While I have appreciation for all kinds of music, it's the music that gets my blood boiling that brings me to the gaming table. It's no surprise that Boss music is a big draw for me, as that tends to be the most pumped up music in a game. The Dynasty Warriors series is a good example of the kind of stuff that I like, with an overabundance of electric guitars and drums and such.

However, it doesn't have to necessarily be overbearing to be pleasantly energetic. I love jazzy, upbeat music as well, a good example being the title theme to Mario Kart 8. That sax is to die for.

New Game Plus

Another game feature that is difficult to advertise because it is THE endgame reward, New Game Plus should pretty much be labeled as "hours of replay value". A concept that I was most liberally introduced to in my time with Chrono Trigger, New Game Plus is a satisfying experience because you are able to butcher earlier elements of a game that might have originally given you trouble, just for the street cred. It also allows you to play through the game and pick up items you might have missed, or maybe allow you to make a new choice at a pivotal moment that changed events in the game further down the line.

This is also a feature of the Souls games I love, but in those cases the difficulty exponentially rises each time you play through again until it finally balances out about 10 playthroughs in. I think I've played my longest running Dark Souls file about 20 times through completely before my PS3 broke, and I had other characters too that I usually beat several times over.

Character Variety / Customization

This can be manifested in a number of ways. On one hand, you can have one character with a tremendous amount of abilities, like Kirby, who sometimes has whole movesets within his already extensive power list (most prominent in the Superstar and Deluxe style of Kirby games). The key is to have the ability to go back and replay certain stages while utilizing another ability you might not have had in the past, allowing you to approach the stage in a different way and see it in a new light.

The next is a wide range of character customization options, achieved either through editing character options at the start of character creation, or having access to a wide arsenal of weapons as the game progresses that all play differently. In Secret of Mana and Legend of Mana your main characters can wield a large range of weapons that all play differently for the mostpart, adding replay value by encouraging you to play through the game again utliizing a different set of weapons to approach a situation. Castlevania games are also good examples, where you have a wide range of equipment that serve different purposes, from quick jabs to slow, powerful arcs. One of my favorite games with character customization is Cocoron, where you play in a dream world and construct six heroes from a variety of heads, body types that play differently and weapon types that have different arcs and trajectories, all with a whimsical, dream-like feel.

Finally, you have games that have multiple playable characters that either play entirely differently, or have subtle nuances. Super Mario 3D World is fun for me to go back to and replay stages using a different character, knowing that the physics will be different with each one by a slim, but noticeable margin. Going back to Symphony of the Night again, it pretty much nails this entire section by finishing off with an unlockable mode where you play as Richter Belmont. Instead of having numerous equips and leveling up, you have only the Belmont ablities (expanded from the original style of games with new attacks for ease of exploration), but you also have to survive with less health, because only Boss fights will give you health bonuses since you cannot level up. There are even versions of the game where you can play as Maria, pretty much making it the finest example of character variety options I can think of.

Intriguing Story

Some people argue they never want to "watch a movie" rather than play a game. I'm not in that school of thinking. If a game has an enjoyable story, I will most certainly enjoy it, and I know what a game is offering going into it. If I wanted to avoid heavy story, I'd know what to play and when.

Now it's not hard to get me super invested in something. As cookie-cutter as it was, I found the ending plot of Pokemon X and Y enjoyable, and I'm also able to get emotional over the nerdiest things, like when Dinobot died in the middle of Beast Wars (slightly unrelated to gaming).

However, when a game tries hard and tells a really engaging story, I get hooked. Final Fantasy Tactics is one of my favorites, having a sort of Game of Thrones meets Final Fantasy vibe to it years before Game of Thrones even existed. There is this magnificent web of intrigue, deciet, dissent between social class, trust, betrayal, the whole shebang. However, the game suffers from the fact that after a major story character is brought into your party, their dialogue options and impact on the story suddenly become DRASTICALLY limited. In fact, by the final act of the story the only one who is really interacting with other characters is Ramza, because all the other major story characters are now in your party and don't have dialogue options because there is a possibility they won't be in your party. Although, there IS one of the first moments of post-party dialogue that is available, which is by far my favorite, where Gafgarion ousts Ramza for lying about who he really is, but despite his deception Agrias, who he just saved in the last mission, has no doubt in her mind that he's trustworthy based on what lengths he went to save them.

Then there is a more light-hearted kind of story that draws me in, such as Kid Icarus Uprising. It's cheeky, self-aware, well written, but it isn't afraid to take a serious note when it calls for it, and all in all has a very nice balance of funny and serious by the end.

Bravely Default is a fantastic example of recent years. I could not put that game down, and I played it through on Hard Mode within the first two weeks of playing it. The characters were playful and likeable, but had real moments of emotional and moral dilemas as the plot grew. And what's more, the characters all grew exponentially as the story went on. My favorite arc in the story follows Ringabel, and although I can argue that I found parts of it predictable and that I guessed certain parts of what was going to happen, how and WHY it happened the way it did and who he became by the end was just phenomenally done in my opinion.

Abstract Story

In almost the opposite end of the spectrum of the last section, I find game stories that are not told in a traditional way or that leave a lot up to the mind of the player to be equally pleasing. Shadow of the Colossus is a nice example, which leaves a lot up to interpretation, and not a whole lot is revealed until the ending, which even at that point is somewhat vague.

Then there are games where the story is broken up in unique chapters that can be approached more or less at the player's leisure. Legend of Mana has I THINK around 50-70 "chapters" within it, and although you have to unlock certain ones to get access to others, you are able to do one part of one story, and then take a break from it and completely divert yourself into the plot of another story and take everything at whatever pace you wish.

Then there is story as told in the Souls games, where you have a basic overarcing plot, usually with some sort of booming voice over, but then you are left to your own devices to explore the world, and depending on HOW you explore, you may find certain dialogue or subtext that will reveal interesting or even startling aspects about the world you inhabit.

Metroid Exploration

Metroid is the most prominent example of this, where you are able to begin the game at one point and sort of explore the world to your leisure until you can find a way to progress. Castlevania copied the formula to great effect, sort of overshadowing its original roots, for better or for worse. Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night are two of my favorite games, so games that follow this sort of exploration formula are good in my book.

One of the earliest examples I had played myself (considering I never got to rent Metroid, I've only ever played it at a friend's home once when I was young) was Clash at Demonhead, which I love for all kinds of reasons and is even the source of my screenname here. The exploring factor was a big draw, though, because you could avoid certain areas and bosses to come back later when you had more weapons or armors that would help you out. There is also a satisfaction after you've completed the game and you go back to it, because you know what route to take to beat the game as quick as possible.

Dark Souls follows that formula, to an extent. Demons' Souls, Dark Souls II and Bloodborne do as well, but not nearly as much. With those other three, there are linear paths imposed upon the player a lot more often, especially in Demons' Souls where there are 5 linear paths quite literally. In the original Dark Souls, the world is a lot more organic, bleeding into areas much more often than the other games in the spiritual series. The areas split into linear paths much later on, and even then they are still peppered with intersections. The two most linear sections are the Catacombs and the Library, but the Library is so far into the game that it is certainly forgiveable.

Super Action

This is the biggest draw for me to any game. If you have gameplay that pits you against tens, hundreds, even thousands of enemies at once with incredible feats of acrobatics, power and devastation, you have my attention from second one. The finest examples of games that will hold my attention for years is the Dynasty Warriors series, including spin-offs like Gundam and Hyrule Warriors, Castle Crashers, and to a lesser extent various shooters.

One example of a gameplay style that I like is Kingdom Hearts. I love almost every game I've played in the series... but I think the story is incredibly dumb. Fanfiction levels of dumb, because really that's what it feels like. You have watered down versions of Disney plots (LITERALLY the same plots and dialogue) with awkward moments where an anime character is like "Hey, I'm here too, I've been here the whole time!", and the plot somehow becomes MORE complex than Metal Gear Solid and makes less sense by miles.

Despite that, I love the gameplay of the series. Quantities of enemies are high, and the variety of enemies and bosses is phenomenal. I enjoy the flow of battle and the acrobatic ability you are given. The games become even more free-flowing as they go, Dream Drop Distance introducing mechanics of being able to grind on rails, bounce off walls and fly almost at will, which is a very enjoyable mechanic as you slaughter countless enemies, or sometimes find yourself whittling down a new enemy you haven't prepared for.

As much as I love the gameplay, I have a funny story at the end of Dream Drop Distance. I was trying to finish the game, because I was loving the bosses I was fighting, so I would skip groups of enemies that I think the game meant for me to defeat so I would have proper level progression. However, I avoided them at all costs for the sake of fighting bosses. By the time I got to what I believed was the final boss, he was so hard that I was RAGING over skype with Gors. No joke, I was literally dying in one hit to almost all of his attacks, so I had to engage him in a perfect run of avoiding bullet-hell levels of attack patterns AND his ability to heal his entire health bar. And to top it all off, by the time I beat that boss, he wasn't the last. There were like three more after him.

[Maxpphire]

As a warning I pretty much only play Music Games nowadays with the occasional JRPG at home and other arcade games while at the arcade such as Super Table Flip.

Graphics: They need to fit the purpose of the game without being overly distracting. As someone who plays music games the overly distracting part can be hella bad, particularly since I need to focus hitting the buttons at the correct time. This is something that in general could be something for boss fights too, if you're too distracted going up against the boss, then you're not going to do as well.

Boss Fights: They need to be terrifying. If you know me as a person, you'll know that horror games have 0 affect on me while playing them and I much prefer to watch other people play them so I can enjoy their experience. However if you've ever seen me play a game with good Boss Fights, I make the same noises as someone who does get easily terrified while playing Horror games. Also instead of screaming I will say/yell the word no a lot. I promise you this means I'm having fun. This only kinda related to the music game aspect when I have noticed I improved. Improving is more terrifying then the boss songs themselves.

Music: It needs to make sense. For example, the song Microwave Popcorn is in Pop'n Music, based on the chart it has, it's honestly perfect for Pop'n music and is one of the most fun charts to play. The Pop'n Music game controller is 9 buttons, 4 on top and 5 on bottom, and all slightly bigger then a Sorry game board dice popper. So it's a lot of Kinetic movement and it's really fun. Meanwhile the song wouldn't translate into IIDX very well because its 7 buttons, in a very much piano like style shaped as smallish rectangles, and a giant turntable on the side. IIDX is more based on hand speed while Pop'n is more based on moving your arms. That being said some songs do work well for both, Nadeshiko Rock being one of them. Nadeshiko Rock was originally in Pop'n Music but was eventually translated to become a IIDX chart as well, then eventually all other music games made by Konami as well. It goes for other games too, I don't want a slow and easy song when facing off a boss, I want something that is going to make it much more terrifying.

Gameplay: It's sometimes really hard to grip my attention game wise. Sandbox and Music games do the best job at it, I think I just kinda like to be able to do whatever and go at it. Constant improvement and being rewarded when you do improve is also really great. Music games are particularly good when it comes to that.

Controls: I'm used to controls being hella on point, and if they are not it bothers me. Playing music games with lag is like trying to play an FPS without only a mouse and nothing else. It doesn't work and it's god awful.

Story: It needs to have a good story. Well Music Games don't but IIDX is full of different stories if you pay any attention to the videos, and each character in Pop'n Music all have their own backstories and there is around 1,000 characters if not more. So honestly Stories are minorly important there too. I really love world and character building so anything that has shit like that in it I will fall in love with.

[Helmo]

Unique Art Style: This is the number one thing to grab my attention, the style NOT the graphics. A unique style will last throughout time, but graphics will not. For example, Parappa the Rapper has a great style and looks fantastic but the latest Call of Duty has 1000x more advanced graphics... that will just become outdated as time passes. Nothing immerses me more than an beautiful and unique world

Great Dialogue: This is almost as important as the art style, as it gives the game it's personality. I don't care all too much about the story, I just want all the characters to have something funny to say. Paper Mario TTYD made me want to talk to literally every NPC because they all had so many great lines!

Experimental Gameplay: When a game tries to fuse two genre's together or just aims to try something completely new this always catches my attention. I mean sure I love the classics, but a rhythm-god game? Patapon is a great example it's seamlessly blends two genres together and it just works so damn well, there's really nothing like it.

[Pik]

you know what draws me to a game? hot babes, which is wh y I only play dead or alive game and dating sim.

give me the babe on the cover and i will bye the game.

[Helmo]

give me the babe on the cover and i will bye the game.

[Pik]

Instant buy.

[GaryCXJk]

Gameplay: If the game has something that interests me, I'll be drawn to it. Hyrule Warriors for example was a clear Dynasty Warriors like game, and I used to love those games. Heck, I even have Dynasty Warriors 8 on PC.

Past experiences: When I have good experiences with a game before, I'll keep on purchasing them, or similar products of equal quality. The Incredible Machines was a really great franchises, so when I heard the creators of these games started a new studio to create Contraption Maker, I jumped on it as soon as it was available, no regrets.

Potential: Whenever a game is in clear alpha or beta, I mostly just look at what the game could become. Doesn't mean it necessarily will be anything like it, also doesn't mean it will live up to its expectation, but if I feel like it might be worth my money I'll give it some. Minecraft I didn't just purchase for the gameplay that was there, I purchased for the gameplay that could be, and I have to say I got a lot of fun out of it.

The protagonist is a female who wears glasses: Yeah, that was actually the main reason I installed the Blackwell Legacy, and I've played all installments since then. Rosangela Blackwell has grown a lot on me, and I really felt a hole in my life when the series ended. And that's something that ties with the next point.

Emotional attachment: If a game can make you come back to it because of its protagonist, because you feel for them, feel with them, it definitely is a game worth playing. Now I haven't played any of the newer Telltale Games games, but the one series I loved was Tales of Monkey Island. The series started at a point where Guybrush was basically older and wiser, more mature, and even through his wackiness, it showed. It made his struggle all the more real.

Fun: If a game is looking to be fun to play, I'll get it. Super Smash Bros. is one of my favorite gaming franchises, and that's only because I had a lot of fun with it, even without friends. Not that I don't play it with friends, but it's still fun either way.

[StarSock64]

I don't want to write a post about 10,000 topics, so I'll just focus on one thing I haven't seen anyone say too much about already.

When it comes to most genres, I'm pretty big on environmental design. In fact, I find that its importance is often equal to or greater than the characters and story, so I think it's a topic that deserves more focus.

Probably the most obvious thing about environmental design is the actual art (drawings, models, sprites...). People tend to associate "fun" with "gameplay," and arguments about graphics in AAA games lead many people to claim, "the graphics don't matter! Who cares what it looks like?!" But if you think about it, the graphics in a game are not at all unrelated to the amount of fun you have, and gameplay can only get you so far.

The very act of looking at good art is fun, isn't it? How often have you found yourself admiring images on the Internet? Considering the amount of time you spend staring at the art while playing a game (y'know, the entire time), having good assets in your environments can create a higher level of fun than good gameplay alone can create. Like, level 99 gameplay is good, but level 99 gameplay with level 99 environmental art is better. 
(As a side note, the problem with the graphical obsession is the fact that many people have a narrow definition of what good graphics are, not that people care about good graphics.)

This is all rather superficial, though. There are things about good environmental design that are more important than having pretty art, including mood, points of interest, and interactivity. I've enjoyed environments with mediocre graphics as long as they've nailed these points!

Mood is pretty obvious. When all of the elements of a game work together to create a specific atmosphere, they tend to generate more impact than a nonspecific or generic atmosphere would. Think horror games or weird old Rare titles.

Environments, of course, are a pretty big part of what makes an atmosphere. More impact tends to make you feel more engaged (sometimes to the point that you can call yourself invigorated!), and that means more fun for you. Mood also contributes to worldbuilding, and worldbuilding makes you feel more invested, and that means more fun for... you get the idea, right?

The next thing, which is a real big one for me, is the inclusion of points of interest. Environments that lack points of interest can be pretty hard to remember. Environments that do have them, however, are memorable because they give our minds something to hone in on. That's entertaining in the long run when we can reminisce about all the moments we had in those particular places. Also, points of interest tend to act as landmarks that make you feel like you're actively having an adventure rather than passively going through some levels. They grab your attention and wake you up a bit, so to speak.

Nothing has to be extremely overt to be a point of interest, but just having variety can be enough. For example, I wouldn't call the cyclops statues in the dungeons of LttP a "wow" factor, but they give the dungeons some character and differentiate them from the dungeons of other games. On the other hand, if there's too much crap crammed into a level, that can mean that nothing stands out. Even if the assets look well-done when taken individually, it can be hard to care about that particular area as a whole.

Another issue is when there are definite points of interest, but they're so uniformly planned and lacking in spontaneity that they become routine and less interesting. I have that problem with Kirby: Triple Deluxe.

Some examples of points of interest include the little arches you fly under in Corneria, the eel in Dire Dire Docks (which you could call a "character," but I'd say the little hole with the eel in it is an environmental thing), tons of stuff in Wind Waker and TTYD, the arcades and little capsule machines in Shenmue, the special buildings in Mega Man Legends (museum, town hall, stores...), or even the checkerboard pattern and weird sunflowers in Green Hill Zone.

If you think about it, without its little details and quirks, Green Hill Zone would just be an extremely boring grass level. Some of you might still think it's boring because opinions and all that, but the base images are iconic enough that they can be used in multiple Sonic games as a throwback (even if they seem to do it too often).

Something of a subcategory for points of interest (if I haven't used that term enough!) is interactivity. Not all games need it, but isn't it great when you can play with something in the environment? I like interactivity for a lot of the same reasons I've already gone over. It helps you feel like an active participant in an adventure, it gives you good memories, it creates variety, etc. Levers and buttons, hidden or destructible objects, minigames, usable instruments, botherable NPCs, platformable dinosaurs, whatever! Even little doors that make satisfying sounds are fun for some reason.

Overall, when it comes to environmental design, it's the little things that add up to create something I really appreciate. It seems like a lot of games are too afraid to include things that stand out or are particularly unusual, or are at least too unwilling to make that extra push. This can be particularly true for games in longrunning series that already have a defined identity. Mario games, for example, don't really interest me anymore because all of the environments, while fairly well-made in a general sense, stick to what's been established and don't do much to surprise you or break the mold. I pretty much feel like a zombie when I play games like that, no matter how good the gameplay is. I beat Mario Galaxy, but I honestly barely remember anything about it because there's nothing for my memories to focus on...

Regardless of my feelings about Mario, I think it's worth considering the specifics about which parts of environments you've enjoyed. I see people talk about this subject every once in awhile, but the discussions tend to be general and unfocused. Those types of discussions seem to miss the meat of what make an area fun to play in. If you want to understand environments, then I really think it comes down to the specifics!