After a bunch of pondering and years of playing video games, I have discovered a general rule of thumb for game feel. It is this:
There should be nothing static on screen at any given time.
Whatever the player sees, should be moving, transforming, having an effect of sorts. And it moves even more in response to the player
Anyway not sure how obvious this is but I realized it from thinking about my favorite games. They employ this rule, obviously not as aggresively as I've said, and yes moderation is the key. It shouldn't move too much nor too little, it just shouldn't be that static.