To date there has been very little innovation in the alt-coin space:
LTC, PPC, Freicoin (I think it is a stupid idea but it is at least innovative), Powercoin Primecoin. That is about it. Everything else has been copy, replace, tweak, launch.
Now I am still not sold that these coins will be successful. For example I don't think merchants really care which POW is used as long as the network is secure. However all these coins required a little more work than copy, paste, tweak, and launch.
I guess LTC should really be replaced with TBX. A case might be able to be made for NMC and DVC as well.
Most of the batch of coins since this past April have gone backwards.