Are there any games that in your opinion have excellent controls and gameplay but lack mainly graphics and/or sound?
Hex-a-Hop is the only one I can think of. It has good controls: you can skip animations, you can undo steps. It lacks sound effects.
PS:
I remembered OpenArena it just really lacks art quality regarding user interface (game menu) but most of the in-game content seems not balanced/fitting each other (player models, maps).