This is one of the reasons that turns me off of modern gaming. Back in the PS2 days, we got three mainline GTA games in a span of just three years. Yes, you read that right: three GTA games in three years. Now, you could give birth to your first child, and not see a new GTA game until that child has made it to junior high school--or even high school. To me, that's just unacceptable. Even if there are logistics involved (and I'm sure there are), I get bored with a game after I beat it and/or play it online for a month or two. What do they expect me to do for a DECADE? It's gotten way out of hand--at least for me.

I can't disagree more.  The annualization of game releases bothers me as more often than not the changes and additions are so minimal that it just feels like you're at best playing a different skin.  Granted, the GTA is a great example for your perspective since GTA3, Vice City, and San Andreas all feel very different, but CODs, Modern Warfares, Fifas, Maddens, etc are the norm.

The gap between Zeldas has made me find other games, other genres, and has given me time to work on my backlog, which always seems to be growing.

I do think that Mario Kart is a bit of an outlier here and the gap isn't just tied to how much it has sold (as in Nintendo doesn't want to break its legs prematurely) but has more to do with the false start that was the WiiU.  But I don't think it's too much to only see one title from a given franchise each generation.  I want the experience to feel fresh and new when I get back into it.  I also want that nostalgia locked in tight on the previous titles so that when I go back and play them I get transported instantly to those times.

Yes, there is definitely a part to that too. The lack of innovation compared to back in the day. As mentioned, those three GTA titles launched three years apart. But they weren't just slight upgrades. They were sea-change games. If you compare GTA 3 to GTA SA, which launched only three years later, it's almost as if the former plays like a proof-of-concept title, rather than one of the mostly revolutionary games of all time--and that change only took three years!

So it's not just the span of time between titles. It's the span of time between titles and lack of innovation together that puts me off of modern gaming.

I suppose I've been spoiled. 

I'd say this turned out to be right on the money. Obviously, there will be no new MK next year, what with all of the new tracks coming to the current game, so 2024 would be the earliest - a full 10 years after MK8 debuted on the WiiU and, most likely, a launch title for the Switch's successor.

Hell yes to #1 and #2.

A "Nintendo Kart" is definitely the direction they started on MK8 and they need to bring to full fruition for MK9. I want to see courses, characters, and weapons/items cover a large range of Nintendo IP.

Also yeah it would be cool to have some course designs ripped straight out of Mario games.

#3 sounds god awful though tbh. I'd have to give up on Mario Kart if they turn it into a GTA style game with courses.

It is definitely time for Mario Kart to make some big changes rather than small refinements. Especially considering MK9 will come out what like a decade after MK8. That alone is a reason to make big changes.

I don't think I would want missions.  I would want Mario levels with courses to run in those areas.  Find blue coins.  Reach a certain high up spot.  Kill all the enemies, etc. I just feel like some of these Mario Kart tracks would be great to be able to actually go explore.  But yes, that isn't quite Mario Kart and I understand that.  But the idea of being able to collect coins in a Mario world and then being able to use those coins as actual currency to expand your garage and upgrade your kart sounds very appealing. 

Alright interesting.

Side note: Sorry I just hate GTA, the gameplay is just so repetitive and boring to me that saying you want to make a great series like MK more like GTA is almost vomit inducing for me haha.

But I sort of see what you're getting at. Really it sounds like you don't want to "GTA" MK but you want 3D-Mario-nize MK. Turn each course into a Mario 3D style area where instead of doing several "star" runs for each area you'd complete different tracks with their own star-like objectives for each course-area.

Interesting idea. Main problem I see with this is you either have one main track per area that is like the normal track that you race on in Mario Kart, And then like shorter tracks for the different objectives in each area, but then you probably don't have that many full normal tracks in the game compared to the last few Mario Kart games because a bunch of them would just be sidetracks for a specific objectives (cuz Nintendo aint gonna make like 32 or even 16 Mario Kart worlds). OR, every track in each course-area is a full-on track that you would typically play in Mario Kart but then you'd probably only end up with like four course-areas and presumably each track in an area would be similarly themed so you'd have much less variety in the Mario Kart tracks as compared to what the series normally has.

I'd rather see Mario Kart go in the direction of Nintendo cart where the diversity of tracks and items is expanding rather than shrinking. Bring in more Nintendo IP to move Mario Kart closer to a Smash Brothers theme rather than closer to a 3D Mario theme.

I could see your idea being implemented just on single normal courses though, rather than different tracks in larger 3D-Mario style levels. So like you can play the normal tracks doing the cups and stuff and just racing, but the so-to-speak "story mode" of the game goes beyond just winning the cups and you have an objectives mode on each course in which it's the exact same course (no large multi-track 3D Mario style level) but depending on which objective you choose to go after you can try to get blue coins or red coins or have a boss fight during the race or take some side path that opens up that allows you to access some secret area (ie reach a high point), knock out X number of level enemies as you race the course, reach a specific item/spot/NPC/whatever on the course thats hard to get to, doing one lap under a certain time, successfully completing a certain shortcut on the course, etc. Yeah I could see that really expanding the single player replay value of Mario Kart.

I think there’s a happy medium in modern game development where 5 years or so feels like a nice gap between mainline franchise installments given the complexity of modern games and the fact that we really don’t need “new” iterations on this stuff so often now that devs can do so much in one game. More than 5 years does start to feel long though… the wait for Zelda has only truly started feeling too long to me in the past year or so.

Something like MK8 is a unique exception though where they made such a complete version of it and then Wii U failed, why not bring it back as this gen’s MK? I do think there needs to be some real innovation with the next one, so if they feel they’ve needed a long time to crack that code, I’m ok with that.

I think a good consistency is the once-a-gen or twice-a-gen strategy.

Games like MK and Smash are once every gen. Of course they repeated MK8 on Switch, but I think that was more a stop-gap so they could have Mario Kart boost Switch's launch-period lineup. If the Switch audience had treated MK8D like a last gen port and it only racked up like 20 million lifetime then I have no doubt we would have gotten MK9 on Switch. But by like mid-2018 or so the legs of MK8D made it clear Switch gamers were accepting it as THE Switch Mario Kart, so there was no reason for Nintendo to put two Mario Kart's on a single system (not including MK Live of course which is a side thing). I'm glad they did the booster pack thing though because it was definitely starting to feel like MK needed something.

Zelda is feeling long but only because it was announced so long ago so we have been expecting it for years. Zelda games take long enough that Nintendo switches between 1 and 2 games per gen. They can't quite do two games per gen but they can do it every other gen. NES 2 zeldas, SNES 1 zelda, N64 two zelda (here they really turned around quick to make MM but I think that had to do with the time mechanic of MM making it quicker to develop), technically 2 for GC but TP was cross gen and the main game for Wii launch and much more popular for Wii so I'll count it as a Wii game so only 1 for GC, 2 for Wii, technically 1 for WiiU but same story as TP so I'll count zero for WiiU but that was obviously a very stunted generation, and now 2 for Switch. No doubt we should only expect 1 Zelda on the next system since TotK is coming out probably only a year before the next system launches so next Zelda will be mid-gen for successor. 

Back to MK, yeah definitely the next MK needs to feel like they are doing something new. Same with Smash, as how do you top Ultimate?? But I have no idea where they go with Smash without just making it feel like they are treading the same territory. With MK its much easier there are plenty of options to do a little bit of re-invention of the MK series. Most obviously being turn it into more of a Nintendo Kart (smash style) by adding in a lot more IP, which MK8 started a little bit, but they can go much much further with that concept.

Mario Kart 8 with DLC really made MK9 harder to ever release.