Partly by my experience with Miner: Dig Deep, and partly by the whole discussion of gaming scores, I am wondering what makes a game great?  In your mind, what would it be?  I see these as potential elements, but they may not be the answer:

1. Addictive gameplay. If the game keeps sucking you in, and you feel like starting over and over again, or continuing, this may be a sign.  Or, do we need more?  I have got sucked into Freecell on my laptop.  And Miner: Dig Deep also played part.  Miner has simple 2D graphics, so not sure how great it is.  It is addictive though.

2. Great graphics.  How many games with great graphics have we seen that weren't great games?

3. Excellent controls.  If a game is a complete knock-off of another great title, down to the controls, would one consider it a great game?

4. Innovation.  How many games try to do something new, but it just doesn't work right?

Anyone else want to take a shot at that?

Innovation and/or top-notch quality.

Points 1 and 3 are enough for me.

Point 4 may cause the score to the higher, but it should not be an absolute requirement. IMO, people should not bash a new instalment of a game because it doesn't do any thing drastically unique. After all, a popular series MUST gain new sequels in timely intervals.

1. Money Hats
2. "Respect for Developer's Effort"
3. Hype
4. Rush the Reviews
5. Fanboys

what makes a game great?

fun, if the game is fun its great on my book

what makes a game deserve high scores?

hype, the so called "hardcore", fanboyism, super realistic i can smell the enviroments graphics and the other sort of bullshit

The big thing has got to be gameplay. It doesn't matter how nice it looks, if the gameplay is bad its not worth playing.

After that I guess good controls, graphics, replayability, and lastly innovation.

If a game has all that it is certainly AAA.

Oh, come on. You're just asking for it there.

Fun should be the most important.
Gameplay and the experience itslef also should hold more weight than presentation.

It really should be about nothing else than having fun while playing it. You must want to play it all the time.

At least that's it for me. I have noticed that with the games that are really on top in my books (Mario platformers, Zeldas, Tales of Symphonia and the Golden Suns, and Okami is shaping up to be one too) I play them also at times I usually don't play games because the time frame is quite short or something into that direction.

You should never get annoyed by the game either. Often, even in great games, there are parts when you have to get over yourself to play it because you know that it's just not fun. Grinding parts in RPG's for example.

If a game really fits those two descriptions, it should get scores no less than 9's. Often there are other, irrelevant factors included though.
Lenght is the worst in my books, because it is so much better to have a short game that has no letdowns instead of a longer one that has.
Difficulty is another one. As long as the other two things are given, why should you care about difficulty? I know that it can be very satisfying battling a boss time and time again until you finally beat him, but it can also be annoying if the fight isn't fun.
Graphics are obvious. If the graphics are so bad that they affect fun, then they are already included in that factor. If they aren't, why should we care?
Story also belongs here, although this can be an argument in story-driven games, because it can be fun playing a game although it has a bad story, but a good story can really give a game the edge without affecting fun. This should only make a game get scores even higher in the 9's though.

I would like to ask people if:
Miner: Dig Deep is a great game. It is addictive, but fairly simple, with 2D graphics.