I find that when one tries to describe fun it ends up being a definition that is purley based on the perspective of the person defining it.
If you find yourself not having fun when you play a game yet all of your friends and the community around you treat said game like it was the holy grail of games (*cough* halo *cough*)
yet you find yourself not enjoying yourself at all then no, you are not having fun.
Take the revival of banjo kazooie, a game beautiful in graphics and is praised for its vehicle building system or something to do with it. The overall game is down right a mockery to what the originals were about, but despite that fact I find myself spending hours on end building those damned vehicles trying to see just how crazy and wacky I can make it. I've got a plane w/ a set of detachable wings with a fold out auxiliary pair right underneath and that can blow itself to crap with the touch of a button. I ramble.
The point is despite the fact that I cringe every time I'm forced to participate in another level that is a testiment to Rare re-living its glory days simply so I can gain access to more parts I have fun at some point along the way, and thankfully since making your vehicle is such a huge part of the game I could probably say that the game is fun....to an extent.
There are many games that I feel no sense of fun in, and those games collect dust somwhere within the bowls of my room next to mario tenis for the N64. Those however that are fun I will find myself yearning to pick up years down the line after I finished them. At least from my perspective a game that is fun can withstand the test of time and leave one yearning for the days gone by.
I could ramble on about how Nuts and Bolts does this by reminding the palyer of the original games, but I think I'll go find the nuts and bolts thread to do that.
Hope that helped, but I probably just confused you more
