I'm just guessing here obviously, but I'd think that if the MK team was going to reinvent the fighting series, as Ed Boon says, on the new systems, he wouldn't start by removing the "fighting" part. I'd be shocked if the MK team brings out their first next gen offering of MK and its not a new fighting game. I'd also be really pissed because DOA 4 was a huge letdown and now my 360 just sits and collects dust. I get more use out of my Dreamcast and my GBA. But I need an MK fix stat!
Oh, and I laughed at first about the MK Kart game idea, but you know what, if they did it right, I think it could be a lot of fun. Each character could have special moves (Sub Zero freezes his opponent in place, Scorpion uses his spear to pull himself up to the guy in front of him, Reptile spits acid all over the road behind him so cars slip, Liu Kang could throw a big dragon shaped fireball that latches on to the car in front of him before it explodes, the list is endless), and you could have fatality moves where a player attacks a player in another car. You get an icon on the road, maybe charge up a meter somehow (by powersliding for example) and then pull up next to a car and press a button, then cars latch together and another button is pressed and say, maybe Scorpion breathes fire all over the car, Sub Zero rips out the other guys spine, Johnny Cage punches the other guy's head off etc etc). And the other guy has to reset to get back on the road, costing him time.
You could have basic power ups that everyone gets like fire balls (turtle shells), blood (oil slicks), babality (the lightning bolt in Mario Kart), heat seeking skulls, invincibility, teleporting, again the possibilities are endless. But I'd still want to see new ideas and MK specific ideas.
Regardless, there could be backgrounds from the MK series for levels (of course) and maybe boss races, unlockable characters, secret pathways, hidden characters, unlockable modes like elimination races (where the last place guy on the lap explodes of course) and a ton of more standard Kart ideas with an MK spin.
I think it could be a fun game, but the problem with Kart games that don't have Mario in them is that they tend to be cash in, spin off games that companies tend to phone in and collect their paychecks. I'd like to play this type of game and I think it could be a fun multiplayer or single player experience but it would definitely be a risky proposition.
