It would be pretty hard for it not to be better than MK as of late. The series has been on a downhill slide after MK DS. You just know they've lost it when they put in 2 Wii Sports themed stages in MK7 when you have so many IPs to draw ideas from.

Sony is developing Sackboy to be their Mario style mascot character. Someone with charm and is cutesy enough to market to everyone.

This game just shows that Sony believes they can do what they wanted to do with Crash, but couldn't.

I certainly hope so. I love both LBP and MNR. I have Mario kart 7 for the 3DS and have played the Wii version and honestly, I don't really care for it. It's extremely boring to me. Really slow and just kind of, eh. MNR was much better imo (just the loading times suck x_X). Anyway, I hope it does well, I'll certainly be trying it if not buying it.

Sonic & All Stars Racing: Transformed has a shot at taking the "karting" crown for this gen, the first one was excellent.

The critics typically gave it an average score (just like all excellent SEGA games do these days no matter how good they are, cases in question Sonic Generations & Binary Domain)

The USERS for the most part loved it.

Watch your backs Mario & Sackboy.

Why does it... brown?

The only thing they have to double up is handling, MNR was not nearly as good as newer Mario Kart games (MKDS, MKWii, MK7) in terms of handling, it's true it had more features and a better online (at least compared to MKDS, MKWii), but in the end the handling and tracks design makes the difference.
Also, really 30fps on a ps3 is ludicrus for a Kart game. I already find inexcusable MK does't run 60fps in 3-4player on Wii (expecially considering Double Dash was 60fps in mutiplayer), let alone on a 10 times more powerful ps3.
The only true MK competitor imo is the old CTR because it has outshined Mario Kart 64 in these most important features, handling and track design, MK64 had a better weapons and a better battle mode tought.

I'm not totally sure if LBKarting will be able to be able to score higher than Mario Kart review wise, and it certainly won't sell better than Mario Kart does, but I think it can still be a successful game with sales around a million after Christmas.

Well first off, how do you objectively measure "twice what Nintendo gave you" in terms of software.  Twice as much what?  Quality?  Quantity?  Both?  Neither?

You can physically look at an N64 controller & a dualshock 1 and see twice as many analogue sticks.

If you could give an example from software it would make me understand what you're trying to say more.  Did Sony give twice as much from WipEout as Nintendo did from F-Zero?  Twice as much from Spyro and Nintendo did from Mario?

Sony never, ever owned the rights to Crash Bandicoot.  They had a publishing deal with Universal Interactive who owned him.  It was as much a Sony game as Gears of War is a Microsoft game, if you need a comparison.  When the publishing deal on Crash ended, he went mult-platform and Sony acquired Naughty Dog.

I think it certainly has a chance you know.  Modnation scored higher in reviews than Mario Kart Wii, which the comparison should be made with (they're both home console versions).  With Media Molecule lending a few ideas and United Front at the helm again, it's certainly got the potential to.

It certainly won't sell more than MK, though :P

You're right, of course.  I meant to say platforming-mascot-kart racing :(