Samsung’s Smart App Challenge won with innovation or imitation?

They say imitation is the biggest form of flattery; but, what about when that imitation is used to win an competition? As is the case with the latest Smart App Challenge from Samsung. For those unfamiliar, the Samsung Smart App Challenge is designed to reward the developers of "innovative apps" for Samsung's Galaxy Note and Tab devices.

This year's grand prize winner was a game called Gun & Blood, developed by the studio Feelingtouch Inc. The game, which is an on-rails terrorist-shooter, earned the studio $200,000 in prize money.

It appears, however, that Gun & Blood may not be as innovative as it first appeared. In fact, upon further inspection, it appears that the game is quite similar to that of the already-released Overkill app from Craneball Studios.

"In April this year, we discovered Gun & Blood for Android was incredibly similar to our iOS app Overkill," a member of the Craneballs staff told us. "And similar is an understatement."

"The game mechanics and design, the whole idea behind Overkill was shamelessly taken over by feeling touch with only slightly reworked graphics," he explained. "Previous version of Gun & Blood even used the same text, word for word!"

These days, it's hard to find an app that isn't somehow similar to (or a direct copy of) something already on the market. However, to have something so blatantly similar win a competition designed to "reward the developers of innovative apps" seems like a slap in the face, especially to the developers that participated.

To assist in their claims, Craneballs has provided us with a side-by-side graphic comparison of the two games. Is Gun & Blood similar to Overkill? Judge for yourself.