The games, nowadays, are extensively used in different fields for learning purposes. They are getting popularity progressively because of their efficacy when used in non-game context, such as in educational and business domain. Game based learning helps the instructors to teach difficult concepts of programming fundamentals to novice students, in order to keep their interest and motivation. Therefore, researchers these days seems quite interested in the field of game based learning i.e. gamification. Hence, this paper presents a review of the existing literature of serious programming games to analyze the researcher's effort in the field and intends to find the possible gaps that exist in the current gamification approaches. Initially, we considered the concepts and knowledge that most of the games have addressed so far pertaining to programming fundamentals. Then we presented important components required for the development of an interactive game by mapping it on (Mechanics, Dynamics, Aesthetics) MDA Framework. Moreover, we presented all the methods that are used for evaluating the effectiveness of games. Based on our review, we concluded our study by identifying the loopholes in the existing literature on game based learning. Furthermore, we identified several open problems in this area and their possible suggestions that will be a contributing factor for future researchers.