Do you think that is it absolutely required to be innovative? I think it is a bit overrated, that maybe the overall fun of the game is more important than innovation is. I do have a list of zany/weird ideas that I want to implement, but most of the time they are not turning out to be that fun in the end.

After all, gamers are continuing to buy the titles with huge roman numerals after them, and you seldom hear complaints that "this game isn't innovative enough". Although one should avoid direct clones of other games, there maybe is a such thing as trying too hard to be innovative and not worrying about the fun factor.