The only other thing I haven't seen mentioned is that these games leave a lot to the player's imagination. When you use universally loved and well-known licenses like Stern does, the story has already been pretty much told at that point. Everybody already knows AC/DC songs. If you're a new player, you can almost bet exactly what kind of experience you're going to get even when you see that machine from across the room. It may be a good experience, but there's no real mystery there. Games like AFM offer something somewhat unknown and encourage you to continue playing to finish the story. That's why FunHouse is so beloved. Nobody had ever seen anything like it before. Even though the story was short, it was still a story that could grab you.