Could Nintendo have ruined Mario Kart?

Over at CVG, they pose a very interesting question: will the inclusion of motorcycles completely ruin Mario Kart? While we'd say the inclusion of bikes may perhaps go against the spirit of the title, we wouldn't go so far as to assume it's such a decision that would ruin the game. Considering we have yet to play it ourselves, we're trying to be open-minded about all of it.

But we will agree with them in saying that the GameCube entry Double Dash was lackluster, at best. The game seemed to be making a return to more traditional values, as it were, on the handheld circuit, with the DS game absolutely blowing us away. Now, the Wii game looks like it's going to follow in the footsteps of the GameCube game.

Now, as we said, we're not passing judgment prematurely, but we are concerned. Are you not concerned? Or, are you confident Nintendo will knock it out of the park, as they say?