Actually invest in pokemon development: Make a seamless world; Challenge puzzles dispersed by the area; Pokemon act like credible wildlife beings; training, changing your team and using their abilities is the key to make your way to explore and solve the puzzles in the world.
And all of that without changing the lore and the battle system (Maybe add calculations for the height and weight difference in battle, for example raise the evasiveness for physical attacks if the pokemon is way smaller than the opponent or raise the physical attack rate if the pokemon is way heavier than the opponent)
For Mario Kart, I would say maybe melee weapons like hammer and sword; full 3d aiming to swing and throw the weapons in any direction using the other analog stick; and finally bring back double dash mechanism. I know a mess, but that is what I like in MK.
We reap what we sow
