Video: Where Does Mario Kart Go From Here?

I think there should be a single-player story mode in the next game with deeper customization that includes things such as stickers and paint jobs. I also hope they bring over the various costumes and outfits from Tour and maybe make more original tracks with the lap-change mechanic like the Tour tracks in the BCP.

Also please give us more than two Bowser's Castles in the next game...

I want realistic physics and controls, less party and more racing, like Super Mario Kart and Double Dash.

In Mario Kart 9, all characters should be removed and replaced with F-Zero racers. All karts should be replaced with space ships. All the stages should incorporate themes of heavy sci-fi. All music should range from heavy metal to punk rock. All items are to be taken away and replaced with boost pads and energy strips.

This is the ONLY way for the next Mario Kart game to stay relevant. 🤫

My vote goes to no rubber-banding. Yes, I know how Mario Kart works. My problem is that it is so aggressive that the system is laid bare. The rubber banding mechanic is so transparent that I am annoyed when I play the game well. Blue shell, lightning, blooper, blue shell, ad infinitum. And then when I'm in the back/middle of the heat, it feels like a participation prize to get those punishing power ups?
Other than that, Flower Kingdom.

I'd love Nintendo to improve the balance of randomness. MK8 already improved it a lot, but it's still far from perfect. Being hit by a blue shell right before the finishing line is something that should not happen. Either remove the blue shell or make dodging it more possible. Or perhaps make it less likely in the final lap, I don't know, but it just feels wrong to lose a race like that.

I'm frankly bored at this point. For all of the new tracks and characters that we now have, it's ultimately still the same old game with the same old mechanics. Yes, it's still a great game, but one that we have been playing for nearly a decade now (and we joke about it essentially being Nintendo's GTA V), and I would have prefered an "All Stars" compilation of the classic Mario Kart games over DLC for MK8D as the older games each have something different to offer at least (and some I haven't played in a long while, if at all).

I loved the concept of Mario Kart Live, but was utterly crushed that there was no cartridge included. I'm not investing in expensive physical peripherals (I would have bought one of each kart) that are tied to a download that will eventually be removed from circulation. That is just plain stupid.

With respect to MK9, I only hope that it isn't some barebones crap supplemented with wave after wave of paid DLC.

The future is to stray away from Mario and welcome all other Nintendo IPs into the mix. The Smash Bros of Kart racers.

Or just do what @erigen says.. that’s a better solution

@JR150 Im not so sure on having a story mode. Especially with Nintendo behind the wheel. But I do like the idea of full customization to make a kart feel personal.

It will be an unpopular oppinion but i find MK a very stale expierience now. Imo they need to change things up by adding, as mentioned above a deep single player expierience something along the lines of Diddy kong racing. In my humble expierience the far better kart racer. Better way of collecting pickups/upgrading them no matter if you was 1st place or last, themed worlds with track representative to said themes and bosses for each world, maybe even different vehicle types too. This worked perfectly for diddy kong. Who am i kidding. Just make Diddy kong racing 2.

I mean...they have a formula that works, from a sales and marketing perspective. People know what to expect and love it, with the exception of a few harder-core gamers.

The LAST thing we need is for Nintendo to try to get cute and come up with stupid game mechanics that make playing the game complicated for their primary audience: kids.

Just create new tracks based on various Nintendo IP, add new characters from other Nintendo IP, and focus more on making the game accessible for more audiences, rather than focusing on a single audience.

And no more mobile games. Period.

I feel the next Mario Kart is either going to be even more MK8 or a Mario Kart Ultimate. In the former outcome, you'd essentially get more DLC over time until MK8 essentially has everything (all tracks, characters, battle arenas, etc.). Meanwhile the latter outcome would be essentially that end result of the former outcome being available from day 1 and any DLC is brand new content.

The current state of MK8 Deluxe feels like how Smash 3DS/Wii U were at the end of their DLC cycle and those games were followed up with Smash Ultimate.

It would indeed be cool if the next console main racing game is F-Zero.. But we all know that is not going to happen.

@Kidfunkadelic83 Right! Diddy Kong Racing, apparently a childish game, is the deepest and most balanced "karts" racer ever released, and it's infinitely more fun when flying and hovering than MK7 and MK8's equivalents, with a story mode and bosses on top of that.

EDIT: The anti-gravity as it's been implemented is the most useless gimmick I've seen in a Mario Kart game.

@mjhopkins81 You didn't enjoy Star Fox: The gimmick adventures?

@sanderev No worries. Im sure an F-zero will be made. Chances are just not in your lifetime.

@sanderev Or Wave Race.

It feels like Mario kart tour and the waves of Mario kart 8 deluxe dlc were laying the ground work for a live service Mario Kart X. If people don’t like live services, they have a very complete Mario kart 8 to go back to.

A big dumb story mode would be fun to see, I’m surprised they haven’t done that already

If Mario Kart did something similar to Forza Horizon but with Nintendo IPs and characters from multiple franchises for the different open world sandboxes, they could have a terrifically refreshing Mario Kart game on their hands.

Mario Kart 9
-16 Nitro Tracks
-16 Retro Tracks
-Elimination based Battle Mode
-Mission Mode
-A good starting roster
-New and unique items possibly tied to characters like DD
-Constant DLC until it's time for Mario Kart 10

DLC includes
-Every Mario character ever (yes that includes WarioWare) and crossover characters
-Every retro track
-Brand new tracks and crossover tracks

That should about do it. Obviously the game needs to play well and feel different enough from MK8 with even better visuals.

F-zero!
Go hard or go home.

I for one thought MK on switch was trash. I mean, it's an okay game. But there's nothing to do. I want a game with unlockable characters, maps and cups. Unlocking the different parts for your cart is pointless unless you want to compete online too. Something along the lines of diddy kong racing, I think, would be much better. A nice openish world where you can go around at will and unlock new maps and secrets: with bosses to boot. And perhaps even different kart types, I'll love the DKR planes forever <3

I think Super Nintendo Kart is the way to go. It opens up so many possibilities for track design and items. Courses from Kirby’s Dreamland, Metroid and Zelda. Imagine racing around death mountain or an alien planet from Metroid.
Otherwise if they release another Mario Kart then they’ll need to drastically change the gameplay. Introduce something so different so it feels fresh.

I mean, Mario kart Ultimate ofc

Wonder Flower turns the track into Bat Country (not the song).

It's Mario Kart X according to some nonsense I've just read.

Anyway, won't it be Nintendo Race Maker?

I would like something of a reboot:

• more focus on racing/skill element, less emphasis on items
• reduce the number of characters, no “Peachette” or whoever, no need for so many Kings, also no non-Mario characters
• remove glider/underwater bits, also remove the anti-gravity bits from #8
• remove kart customisation entirely, also reduce number of karts or simply have the classic go-kart.
  Given how well Mario Kart sells, I doubt Nintendo will do anything like that. However the franchise has accumulated so much bloat, and gone so far from what it was originally, that I think they need to refresh the formula.

I just hope the next game has chat options (either Ingame or via party with friends) as the online gets stale quickly when you can't chat and race.

It‘s a near perfect game with universal appeal. It is going to be very hard to top that. But as others have mentioned, they are probably going to take the Smash Bros. Ultimate route. I could also see them introduce a new gimmick with different coins and abilities. But they‘d have to keep some kind of basic mode to make it accessible for newcomers.

New tracks / racers based on Nintendo IP, like Kirby, Kid Icarus, Pikmin etc.
Track editor!
New multiplayer modes with more courses (and a return of Block Fort!)
Weather, course hazards & maybe random / rogue elements added into specific racing / survival mode to mix things up a bit.
Weekly / monthly challenges to unlock kart customisation, keep us coming back for new unlockables - ties in with collecting coins during races to spend on cosmetics maybe? (absolutely no loot boxes etc, just in game currency)

I miss the difficulty of negotiating the tight and unforgiving tracks of SNES Super Mario Kart, with every release since then having bigger, more visually impressive and grandiose environments at the expense of real racing, or that's how it feels to me.

I did miss out on Double Dash, as I thought it was a gimmick, but played it once and enjoyed it. The other versions have never gripped me in the same way as the original - I even prefer the GBA version over more recent releases.

@beartown this is correct, Nintendo. Hire this bear.

obviously Mario Kart 10 on the next console because Tour is 9

@spacely_sprockets I agree about customization. I'd add that I wish I could turn off some playable characters. Like let me pretend the baby characters don't exist, please. And the metal ones. And no real world tracks, lol. But yeah I'd like to go back to only having character weights factor into things than all of the customization in 8.

@Rambler ugh, zippo. don't listen to him, he just guesses half the time and gets lucky. he once made an article on roasting fake leaks on his blog, all the comments were something along the lines of "that's ironic"

@N0SEGaming
Yeah, it was that guy being quoted on some site I believe is not too accurate itself. It just showed up in my feed earlier today.

@gb_nes_gamer if you're a SEGA fan at all, Racing Transformed is basically Sega Smash Kart. It's really good.

They need to move on from MK8 and don't even bother with a Mario Kart Ultimate. Give us a new game that pushes the franchise forward

@Rambler I discovered him when he "leaked" Sonic Origins back in 2022. (I was excited at the time) I learned he was a liar.

@Erigen that’s the worst idea ever.. maybe you’re just salty wanting a new F-Zero lol but I’d much rather have a Smash Bros Kart racer as I never cared for F-Zero

Nintendo should do what Activision did with Crash Team Racing to include microtransactions. Just kidding.

Nintendo should do what Naughty Dog did with CTR and RARE with Diddy Kong Racing and include an adventure mode with a semi-open world. Nintendo could also branch out to make a new series of racing game to include more characters outside the Super Mario series. It also would be cool to include a double dash mode.

I’d like a re-focus on tight and responsive handling and racing (and combat). For my taste the non-racing fluff has taken over in MK8. So I’d like them to strip it back a bit: Remove flying, underwater sections and tricks. And if necessary reduce the number of participants, so we can have narrower courses again.

Now is a good time for a soft reboot. All new tracks. No retro tracks.

@mjhopkins81 your description of accessibility sounds like a mobile game.

@Ryu_Niiyama Flower Kingdom stuff ftw.

• More kart/bike parts, and bring in more parts from previous games
• In Versus, make Mirror an option:
  "Off/On/Random", instead of tying it to only 150
• And/Or In Track Selection, have a button to switch between normal/mirror versions of a course
• More battle courses and modes from previous games
• More characters such as Dixie Kong, E. Gadd etc and less/none like Tanooki Mario, Pink Gold Peach etc
• Instead make those part of a "costume" feature, so they don't crowd the Character Select screen

@Banjo- ...you go upside down and on walls and it looks cool, you weirdo.

simply remake every single course that isn't on Deluxe and add it to it.
Make it "Ultimate"

Make it open world like Forza 😂 seriously though, I little open bit where you can practice and find other people would be pretty good

Other options I'd consider are:

A first person mode where you can see your character's hands on the wheel and Double Dash as an option

@Banjo- Less mario more kart?

Mario Kart DS "Mission Mode" was great fun

Everyone who plays Mario Kart 8…play it very well today. So…Nintendo needs to make next Mario Kart harder to drive. We need more challenge driving the cars. Put a harder driving mode.

And…much more battle courses. battle is better than the kart racing……mario kart racing is too easy and boring.

If Nintendo games, including Mario Kart…go easier..and easier…i’m out.

I kinda wish they did a much more difficult MK next time. With corners you can't drift easily through. Something more difficult than 200cc, that would really require using the ideal racing line, braking and adding throttle gently after the apax.

Marn Kurismo

Double Dash!! 2, with more Smash Bros characters, special items for each unique pairing, story mode that can be played split screen, and maybe rotating cups to keep things interesting

I always thought it would be cool if they did a story mode like f zero gx. You could race to catch bowser in his castle as he throws down random obstacles, and if you trigger a switch at the end, you’d make him fall into some lava. Or you could gather deviously placed red coins in a Yoshi level while racing against hostile shy guys. You could have different zones with bosses at the end that need to be raced or beaten in an old school balloon battle mode level. So much they could do!

Mario Kart Horizon.

A Forza Horizon like Mario Mart would be amazing.

I'd love to see the possibility to change the tracks like in the Split Second game.
That was such a great feature that would translate perfectly in Mario Kart.

I have played a lot of other kartracers on Switch and none of them are as much fun, easy to enter, difficult to master as Mario Kart.
For next installment they just need better graphics such as the Mario Bros movie.
16 new tracks, 12 drivers. Then bring the season passes.

It could diversify content- more items that are level based. More levels being a different game. A race could have different physics. Go deeper in terms of underwater and space combat. Having a race that goes into space like Star Fox. Could invade someones cart and on success the carts can swap. Having more combat to the back and to sides. More items! Some level based and some character based. Some items could get powered up with 10coins too!

To the folks who are saying Mario Kart has grown stale, you’re not wrong, we’ve been playing the same game for nearly a decade. 😆

I think the next evolution of the franchise is to start bringing in weapons and courses from other Nintendo properties, or even some special tracks with 3rd parties.

I love the series so much but outside of making it Nintendo Kart and opening it up to other Nintendo characters and tracks based in those worlds, I'm not sure what else they could do. They've kind of did or tried everything. Water, sky, anti-gravity, partners; I'm really not sure what can be introduced. Are graphical upgrades enough? Open world? Do they try to do something like Forza Horizon? Do they move further away from the formula and do more of a racing sim with Nintendo characters? Do they introduce RPG elements? It's Nintendo so I doubt there's a possibility of a Twisted Metal style car combat game.

I trust Nintendo and as I already stated, I love Mario Kart. I patiently await the next game in whatever form that comes. In the meantime, I'll continue to play MK8.

How about giving Mario Kart a break, and bring back F-Zero and Wave Race?

Or maybe call it "Mario Racing" instead, and include jet ski's, and other new vehicles to drive.
Air, land and water stages. And maybe some missions, like in Diddy Kong Racing.

Super kart Bros ultimate, featuring level maker.

full item/weapon/rules customization a la smash bros. you can call it Mario Kart Ultimate.
please, let us go back to single item at a time.

also, for the love of god make it harder to accidentally turn on "baby mode." 🙄

@RetroGamer5491

alright, so you beat me to it. so? so?

😅✌️

Bring back the double dash feature aka 2 players on one kart

I've had all my fun with MK8 and MK8D + BCP, over 450h, well worth my money. Thank you for that.
But honestly I'm not waiting for a new Mario Kart. No rush, there's more than enough to keep playing online for a long time. I'm still surprised sometimes with a turn that was different from what I thought ... I don't know all the circuits by heart yet!

I would love to see a MK with a track builder option with a full suite of elements and themes, as well as robust hand crafted tracks. Think something like the criminally overlooked Modnation Racers on PlayStation, mixed with the ease of building from Mario Maker. Make it super easy to share creations online. I would love to see other Nintendo IP thrown in the mix to make a “Super Smash Kart” but realistically I see it sticking more with Mario and perhaps the occasional cameo like how we have Link and a Hyrule course, Blue Falcon kart and F-Zero courses, etc. but if it stays with a single IP I think the Mario Kart Maker option would be best

Bring back the Mario Kart TV app, with proper online time trials. Mk8 went backwards with this.

@-wc- Mario kart ultimate sounds much better then my idea, though😂😂😂

Super Crash Bros
The MK formula has absolutely peaked with MK8 and all the additional content, and a fully fledged cross-franchise racer in that same spirit would be a great way to evolve the series. And I would love to see character specific items return which would fit in really well with all the different IPs in play!

@Yoshif3 I believe this as well

I would make the game more like the original and less like the newer versions. I find them too floaty and the rubber banding a massive issue, also take out the customisation on the vehicles, just keep it to the characters.

But a pretty similar game to all the previous one's with a little gimmick on the side, as per usual.

@Erigen Hey, hold on a second! Didn't you know that F-Zero GX only sold 420 copies, and that a Switch sequel would have even slower sales? We're talking about a tiny, tiny, vocal minority that wants this; not even enough to break even on development costs.

And those dozens of upvotes you got are imaginary.

a campaing/story mode similar to Diddy Kong Racing would be excelent, also having a semi-open design for the tracks

@Grumblevolcano Yeah, I'm seeing those parallels between Smash and Mario Kart as well. It's very much a double-edged sword, though: MK8 Deluxe and SSB Ultimate (and even SSB4) have a staggering amount of content, such that it will be seemingly impossible- or at least impractical- to top them.

Meanwhile, I'm finding myself less interested in both, probably caused by a mix of the overwhelming amount of stuff (it's harder to appreciate everything at that volume!), the simple fact of getting older (less wonder and surprise with each new addition), and my perception that both of these games have less interesting physics/mechanics than their GameCube-era counterparts. Yes, the new ones are more polished and accessible, but they've lost something along the way.

I'd definitely be down for a new entry that shakes things up, whether that's via mechanical changes, a world to explore (a la DKR), or turning into "Super Smash Kart", with more exploration of non-Mario content. Though that last one is probably just kicking the can a little further down the road...

I feel at this point they need to evolve the series. They have already incorporated a lot of characters beyond the franchise, so they should double down on it. Add more consistent F-Zero elements and kits, add more toons from the smash bros roster. They could possibly even incorporate smash bros elements into a race. They could just do so much with this.

Special items aren't Double Dash's big thing, as they also appear in Tour.

Meanwhile, the titular mode of having two players per kart has been practically non-existent and should come back. That way the game can also differentiate from Mario Kart 8 and Deluxe.

@Banjo-

more realistisk? you mean as in forza or gran tourismo? the whole gimmick with MK is that it's not realistic.

Seems obvious to me that the next "gimmick" they add to freshen up the formula will be tracks where the layout changes with every lap. You see the way it came into the city tracks once they came to MK8. That's gonna be every new track on the next game. Probably won't be released on the Switch, but Mario Kart Switch would've been the perfect name to go with that feature...

@smoreon

yeah doesnt everyone know by now, making any game that is at all less popular than another game is business suicide? why not just throw your whole company in the trash?

All this talk of Smash Kart got me thinking: what if there was a variant of battle mode where you had to knock each other off the platform? The bananas could cause them to slip off the edge, shells should eventually increase their percentage of damage so that they go flying farther, and they could just drive off the edge on accident. Then maybe some arenas where breakaway floors encourage elimination.

Here are some other ideas I had been thinking of though:
1. An adventure mode like in Diddy Kong Racing.
2. Tracks that change with each lap like in Tour. This would be logistically challenging in local co-op where people on the same console could be on different laps.
3. An overworld where these tracks exist in juxtaposition to each other. The next level for a game’s immersion is when it has a convincing sense of place. Some examples to build upon are Daisy Cruiser being in the background of a few tracks or the Wuhu Island tracks.
4. I’ve actually long been confused how most tracks are considered Marioesque. Sherbet Land and Moo Moo Farm aren’t from Mario games, yet there is no track for Forest of Illusion from SMW or Tadpole Pond from Mario RPG. They could expand the soundtrack so much by better incorporating actual Mario locales with their musical tracks. Perhaps the OST could be like Smash in that regard. I actually think most of the franchise is a squandered opportunity. Like why is it Rainbow Road and not Star Road? Facepalm.
5. Tracks that more closely follow the areas that they’re from. Imagine one that’s more or less exactly 5-2 Ride the Ski Lifts from Yoshi’s Island or the race against Koopa the Quick in SM64. I'm sure there are better ideas, but I don't have my player's guides in front of me at the moment.
6. Mario Kart Maker.

I would like to see more tracks that change with every lap like the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe version of Kalimari Desert.

I also want the return of mission mode and last man standing balloon battle.

@FlyingDunsparce forget about the name Mario Kart 9 since Tour is 9. Tour is even acknowledged in the MK8 Booster Pass, so it's definitely part of the séries. On the other hand, I am pretty sure MK Live Home Circuit is considered a spin off, therefore it's not MK 10. So, the next MK is 10 and It makes sense when the rumours call It MK X.

Get rid of luck based racing and go back to more skill based
Get rid of the damn blue spike shell or at least make it his EVERYONE, not just first place racers!.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Deluxe.

My vote would be to keep building on MK8.

Get rid of real world locations, there are other games for that.

Some of the ideas in the video are really great. The mode where you have only 3 mushrooms and no other items. The harder difficulty mode against cpus. The more intricate tracks. More shortcuts. The cooperatively unlockable shortcuts, that's great too. More options in general. Make the 1 lap tracks playable in 3 laps mode, looking at you Rainbow Road 64. The badge system that lets you customize the way you drive more. Great ideas, I'll take all of these.

F-Zero WizPig

It will be subscription/live service oriented….. I hope there’s a base game, plus season pass that can be purchased. They will have seasonal updates with tournaments and mini-games, somewhat like Tour. I hope they have new characters and IPs….Kirby, Star Fox, Fire Emblem, Bayonetta, Xenoblade, Metroid tracks and circuits….

@beartown That's a big reason why I haven't been into MK as much as back in the day. 7 and 8 aren't nearly as bad as Wii was with the randomness and rubberbanding, but I want to feel like races are based more on skill and mastery of the kart and track instead of random zaniness. And no one should be outright punished for staying in first place for long periods of time. MK Wii became all about learning how to stay among the pack for 2/3rds of the race, then zooming into first after everyone has exhausted all of their BS items and blue shells and hoping that you don't get worked over yourself before crossing the finish line.

@Banjo- you don't want realistic physics. what you want is to feel fun

Well, I think Nintendo will have a hard time improving both MK and Smash for the next gen, as both last entries were really superb (well... you could actually very easily improve Smash with just good Online support and modes).
My only fear is that this is the peak for both franchises and everything else is just downhill, as happened to Paper Mario after TTYD. But see that hardly happening to 2 of it's best franchises

@Paulo But if Tour is MK9 that would make it the sequel to MK8 right? So it should have tracks from MK8 which it does not. Instead it's the other way around. MK8 has Tour tracks and refers to it as a past game. There's a reason they ported all the Tour tracks to MK8. It's to have them in a main Mario Kart game. Tour is not Mario Kart 9.

I've been playing MK8 since it released on the Wii U. It's my go-to when I need something uncomplicated in my life.

Unpopular opinion, but I honestly find most of the game to be balanced to perfection. When I get blue shelled at the finish line, it's a bit of randomness that I masochistically enjoy. The rubber banding doesn't even bother me that much. It means for every race, there's usually only one or two rivals and we can send each other back into the "pit" as punishment. And the anti-gravity is a nice mix-up both for dynamics in bumping into each other and visual variety.

That said, I wish there was more to unlock. Getting all 3-Star Gold Trophies is great but I have basically nothing to show for it. I'd be head over heels if there were something like Diddy Kong Racing with secret courses, bosses and collectables — even more so if I could co-op with my wife.

@FlyingDunsparce I still believe Tour is MK 9. If the next game is MK 10 or X, then I am right. Graphicswise, Tour is pretty similary to MK 7, so it was easier to port tracks from MK 7 than from MK 8, which is more graphically advanced. Likewise, MKSC from GBA is MK 3 and has tracks from Super Mario Kart, but not from MK 64.

@LikelySatan
I don't like that either. I would love to play the game more often in singleplayer, but this rubber stuff turns me off every time :-/

@JR150
Agree there, more like DKR, just more..

@smoreon I'm not talking about F-Zero, I'm talking about Mario Kart, you big silly you...

@Thomystic Some nice ideas here.
I'd like to point out that #2 was done by Sonic and All-Stars Racing Transformed, despite including local co-op, and that #3 was done nicely- if a little too subtly for most of us to notice- in Double Dash!

As for #4, I like to joke that Nintendo brainstorms track themes by spinning two roulettes: one with the characters' names, and the other with typical video game environments. (spins) "Yoshi... Desert!" "Toad... Factory!" "Wario... Mountain!"

I just want one little thing: The ability to swap your items when you're holding two. I know switching items was tethered to your characters switching from Double Dash!!, but it would sure come in handy when you have a more effective item on you.

@FlyingDunsparce
So you want it to become like a battle pass thing? It could be interesting, but it would take away a lot of the game's appeal. People would start grinding to earn items, and that would be a pain in the butt for someone who just wants to play comes on.

Do an F Zero GX/Tokyo Extreme Racer Drift and pull a talk to the characters type thing I think that would be cool. (New ideas).

Maybe bring back Double Dash but as a mode, battle or single cup? (Old ideas in a small way or a large way).

New or old ideas put in I think is the way to go.

I don't care for Mario Kart but just giving some fair 2 cents about what it could do.

@PersianZSR
No, I want them to sell it to us like they did with the BCP. Have a season pass each year that adds new cups and characters. But do it from the start instead of waiting 5 years for it like Deluxe did. Basically build the game around the concept of DLC so that new content can easily be added without being limited by arbitrary restrains such as the cup selection screen not being able to have space for new cups or character costumes not being a thing.

it needs a new gimmick. Nintendo has been milking the same mechanics for a decade now.

It really needs to become "Nintendo Kart" pull from the entire family of characters. Sort of a "Smash Bros." of the karting world. Maybe bring in some kind of boating or flying elements to change things up, via Diddy Kong Racing. Just imagine flying through the lands of Kid Icarus or Jet Skiing in the waters of Wave 64. There is some much that can be explored. The one thing they do not want to do though is bring in any stupid "micro transactions" or making players grind through "seasons". These are things that killed Chocobo Racing, Crash Team Racing, The Disney Racing game, whatever that was called.

I would like to see a more balanced weapon system. More short cuts / secret paths. Allow "track jumping" but only for the last 3 Karters, give them a secret edge. You know help the underdog out.

@Dazman I wouldn’t call it trash, but man do I agree about the disappointment of having no characters or tracks to unlock. Like, parts are fine as one of many things to get, but I want a game that starts with 6-8 racers max and ends up with 72. It’s part of why I’ve put way more time into Smash vs Mario Kart.

I want the next console to have a gimmicky screen/control setup and Mario Kart to leverage said gimmicky control scheme in a poorly thought out core gameplay mechanic

For the next Mario Kart i want the Kart racing as we have, more levels characters.
But i also want a storymode kinda option, where you actually have to do missions, fight bosses etc.
Like rare did with diddy kong races (bosses part)
Aside from that. I want it to arrive on switch 2, for even better visuals, animation and the backgrounds to feel even more alive.

My guess is Nintendo will release Mario Kart 8 Ultimate on Switch 2, or even Mario Kart Ultimate in order to officially move beyond the "8". It will include all the current tracks, plus 16 new ones. Dual characters will be added as an option, and even specific karts and items available only to certain characters, like Bowser had the giant shell in Double Dash and the special karts in DS.

There's several wishes I have too:

1) 150 cc actually be a challenge. Before I get an endless stream of whingers saying you can play online or play 200 cc, no, I'm talking about the specific core part of the game (the Cups, not random races online, which require me to be home anyway) and 200 cc is an unnatural novelty class. It would be nice to race new tracks and not win automatically first go. It's a sick joke that Nintendo has never addressed this issue. In MK8 Deluxe, it's even more disturbing that no option was added to compliment the retro tracks added, especially as many of us already knew them so could cruise around and win even more effortless.

2) Random kart/character selection. Double Dash had this and it made Versus mode much more interesting as we could change configuration before every race rather than defaulting to our favourite, boring setup, which was typically small characters in lightweight karts with good acceleration - just as it remains to this day. Even if this option was available prior to Versus mode setup or, indeed, any mode of the game, that would be something.

3) Apropos to the previous point, make all types of kart configurations able to win! As it stands, it's the same lightweight/acceleration configuration that works best on every track. On 3DS, fat wheels could drive a little on dirt while boosting without losing speed, so add that fully, or make fat wheels better on dirt in general, and give speed configurations even more speed. There's just no room for diversity in setups, and that's wrong and dumb!

4) Item dragging should be limited. It's farcical that a leader can drag a shell around the entire course while in second you only get the odd shell, which often is required for defence anyway. It nullifies the entire ethos of MK of never being safe. Of course, CPU racers are the worst at this, and will often slide in unexpectedly to take you out. The solution? You can't slide while dragging! That would limit defensive use of items for the moment of attack, and leave dragging without penalty to only on straights. So you can still drag and defend; it's just that the potency of it is reduced.

5) Reverse mode of tracks! Mirror mode is dumb. You want to double the track options? Allow racing in the opposite direct. Imagine racing UP Wario or DK Mountain? As for tracks with flying sections, add a barrel to launch players up to the higher section.

Flip the eight to the side and call it what it is, Mario Kart Infinite.

Just give me back the "All cup" from double dash. A cup were the first track and the last track is set, then randomize the other tracks. I played this with my siblings in double dash for years, and it felt fresh as you never knew when the different tracks would appear appart from Luigi circuit and Rainbow road

Give us all popular Nintendo characters. Like 5 different Pokemon, Kirby etc.

I bet they won't call it Mario Kart "9." Also I think they are gonna make a roster like Super Smash bros with the next one, where it will have even more than just characters from the Mario series.

Mario Kart goes Rocket League

Mario Kart Crossroads
Mario/Sonic/Crash/Pac-Man

Mario &Sonic Cross Kart Showdown