Out of all that the games that have ever been made, there are very few games that have stood the test of time to be termed a classic. Some of the games that are already classics would be games like Mario, Sonic, Final Fantasy, Zelda, Command and Conquer and Deus Ex. All of these games can be termed as a "classic" but what is it about the games that made the public go mad for them and grow up to love the games. In my opinion there are 5 factors that make a game brilliant:

For a game to become successful, the game needs to have a new storyline, which the gamer will never have experienced before, and that will keep them intrigued in the game from the start to the finish. An excellent example of this would be the Mario games, although every one of the games has the same story line, when it first came out it was an idea that was not seen before in a game.
The best example of a great story line making a great game, is in Deus Ex, When Warren Spector was making this game he took elements from many other games, including Thief and System Shock and blended them together. He ended up making one of the most intriguing interesting games ever. The story used a quite common terrorists VS government special agent story line, but he added new elements that made Deus Ex so original. He set the game 50 years in the future and made new technology called nano-augmentations that meant that players could play the game the way that they wanted to. There was also very interesting twists in the story line, that made you play on right to the end of the game, and any story line that keeps you 100% addicted to the game until the end like deus Ex did is a classic.

The one thing that can make or break a game is its locations, whether it is a strategy game, a first person shooter or a children’s plat former players want to be running around a place that is interesting and different from the other games that they have played before. In Deus Ex, the player played in cities like New York, Hong Kong and Paris. Unlike other games that where set in these type of locations, the game designers made huge cities that where excellently laid out, they contained many hidden features that meant that the game had maximum re-playability, the huge levels would have easily made an excellent Driving game level, how I’d love to play twisted metal in that city. The Cities looked great, and the intense, huge areas meant that the player almost became part of the game and felt like a secret agent in the game.
The best game to look at, level wise, is the sonic games, because of Sonics amazing speed the levels had to be huge and excellently designed so that the player could not just spin attract the whole way through the levels. In the 2D versions of the games Sonic Team showed the gaming world how a game should be made. The fact that you could play as a multitude of players, each with different skills like flying or climbing walls, all playing in the same level had to mean that they made the levels different for each character, but not clashing together.

Without an interesting lead character in a game there would be no point in playing the game, that’s why you never see a game with a dumb lead character who can't speak, because the game would be boring as there would be no interaction with other people. This factor is especially important in RPG games, as they are all about the interaction with other characters. The Zelda and Final Fantasy games always have lead characters that the player can relate to and feel comfortable playing as. Cloud from Final Fantasy VII was one of the main factors that the game became such a big hit as it did, he was a pleasant character but had a hidden side to him that made gamers interested even more in him.
In Deus Ex, Warren Spector made probably one of the most interesting human game characters ever in a computer game. JC was a tough guy, but he was very secretive and had a lot of history that was unravelled throughout the whole game. The fact that he was only half human and half computer was an interesting concept in the game, and the fact that he could be upgraded so to speak, made players play on just to see what exactly he was capable of. This factor also added a lot of re-playability to the game, changing what skills and Augmentations you gave to JC could change the way you had to play the game completely. The inclusion of JC's brother Paul in the game also added something different to the game, as playing through the game you actually started to relate to him a lot and he also plays an important part in the game. Throughout the game you learn a lot more about JC, his parents and how he came to be, and this development makes Deus Ex all the more interesting.

Some people think that the term "Graphics" is how good a game looks, this is completely off the mark as games that seem to have very dated graphics are sometimes the best games ever made. The perfect example is strategy games like Command and Conquer, although the graphics are very 2D and looks blocky; the game is considered an all time classic game. This is mostly due to it's amazing gameplay, it gave a unique battle simulation when it first came out, that the players loved, but I don't think that the game would have worked as well if it didn't have the top, down graphics that it had. They made the game easy to play and made the multiplayer run super smooth.
Some type of games do need really realistic graphics, for instance a racing game with poor graphics just wouldn't sell. Games like Deus Ex also needed to have graphics of a good quality, as the game was based in the real world and was a 3D game. The other elements of Deus Ex would not have worked and related to the player if they didn't see a realistic world on their screen. Great graphics are not needed for a game to become a classic, but the graphics in a game need to suit the style of the game and the time period that it is released in, Daiktana take note.

Something that often goes unnoticed by the gamer is the sound in games, but if it wasn't in a game people would be complaining, big time. Sound in games can build up great atmosphere and tension in a game. An excellent example of this is the resident evil series; here the game makers used the lack of sound in a game to build up incredible fear in the gamer. The game was very silent, with you only hearing your footsteps running down a corridor, and then when you meet one of the monsters the music blasted out, and created an excellent effect, that helped make resident evil a classic game.
Deus Ex uses sound in an excellent way, not only does it use the sound to build up the incredible atmosphere in the game but the bad guys all communicate with one another, this makes the game even more realistic and makes the gamer more aware of the things in the game, improving the gaming experience. The music in Deus Ex is also an excellent tool that the game makers have used to their advantage to create an atmospheric game, by letting the music play at points in the game where they want to alert the gamer of danger and where they want to create a part of the game full of action.

For a game to become a classic, the game makers must combine all of these elements in a way that works for the particular game type that they are trying to make. They also have to be careful not to overdo a particular part of a game and leave the rest of the game lacking; we have enough games with brilliant graphics and crap gameplay. If you look back at all the brilliant games that have ever been made, you will see that they used all of these elements to create a gaming experience that gamers will love.