It's as simple as that! Without originality you can still have a good game, but to provide the best gaming experience possible make it a NEW and INTERESTING one!!!

Several sequals in the real video game world have failed simply because they were TOO MUCH like the original! Example? Well, I know I'm digging a little deep here, but look at Crash Bandicoot! The original Crash Bandicoot was an original and fun game, Crash Bandicoot 2 felt a bit recycled, and by the time Crash Bandicoot 3 came out people were tired of it. Why? They used the same engine and there was too little variance!

Look at the Mario series. Each Mario game is ridiculously different from the last. Mario Sunshine was the most criticized, in fact, because some say it wasn't DIFFERENT enough! This freshness keeps the series popular and fun. Would you still be playing Mario if the last three games were simply Super Mario World with different levels (3D technology and graphics aside).

So how do YOU incorperate originality? Well, look at these two things:

-How your character moves.
-How your character attacks.

From altering these two things you can change your game for the better.

EXAMPLE: Shooting has been done and done again in the klik world. And overdone once more. So has standard platform movement. How to make this more fun? Let me go over a quick rundown of some fun ideas that haven't been overdone!:

ATTACKS:

-Kirby style! Be able to steal and use enemy attacks!
-Multiple guns! Collect and use varied weapons or attacks!
-Melee attacks! Hard to program right but fun to use!
-An inanimate object to throw! Carry a ball or something and throw it at enemies to hurt them! Pick it up to use again! Maybe incorperate a whole pick-and-throw engine with multiple items and weapons to pick up and throw!
-No weapons! What if you can't kill enemies? The game could either be a little more puzzle-esque, or it could involve a lot of dodging attacks and bullets and running away, or a combination of both!

MOVEMENT:

-Jetpacks! Using jetpacks is definately fun! Keep in mind you'll have to design your levels AROUND this mechanic, as with most alternate movement abilities.
-Stick to walls! Megaman does it, I believe Ninja Gaiden does it (never played =/). Incorperate it! It's fun!
-Super speed! "Bullet-Time"-esque abilities are fun fun fun!
-Destroyable backrounds! Not quite movement-related, but blowing stuff up is quite fun. Problem is you would have to figure out how to make it useful but not overpowered. Also the "Paste to backround as..." feature is negated when the level scrolls.
-Gliding! I always found it fun to play as Knuckles in the Sonic games or Dixie Kong in the Donkey Kong games partly because of their gliding abilites. Anything that adds more control feels good.
-Teleporting! Imagine being able to teleport a short distance any direction by holding ctrl and pressing up, down, left or right. You couldn't teleport into backdrops. Would be good for dodging stuff and just a fun little feature that adds more control.

THERE! Of course these are not all the movement and attack possibilities- there are literally an unlimited number of ways to do these things. HOPEFULLY you got a little inspiration, so the next game you make won't have the cute/funny character jumping around shooting things over and over and over.

Movement and attacking aren't the only places you can improvise- look at how your character gets hurt and dies. Will your character die in one hit? Ten hits? Will you have a sonic-style 'ring' system? How will level-progression work? The standard one-level-after-another scheme? Metroid huge connected levels style? Super Mario World style with an overworld and possibly two options on which level to go to next?

As you can see there's a lot to look at. But the bottom line is THIS: Originality WILL make your game more fun! So next time you make a game, consider how you can make it different from the average klik game!

Good luck!

-The Klik Factory