They threw that in as an easter egg-ish kinda thing because of the theme of the game. I actually thought it was a roster opportunity missed. If you're gonna have all these good guys with kids, you might as well complete with one bad guy that has a kid too. Make him even more psychotic than Kano with his own unique weapon and skills. But judging from the ending itself, in which Kano mistreats him, I have to assume that NRS's story arc for him would've had him being a good guy part of the SF squad. Add a whole ''We have a hard time trusting him'' angle and possibly him betraying them further down the story. Cliché, but it just writes itself.

He is a really good character and his Cybernetic Variation is my fav. I can care less about his role in Storymode.

As to if he should be included in the next game...I don't think he will be, but his son could be in MK11.

I didn't enjoy Kano much in MK9. And when I say I like/dislike a character, I mean mostly their design, voice, personality, backstory and actions in the story (to a certain extent, since the story mode is very limited), not so much their gameplay. Kano looked boring and plain, like a rehash of his MK3 combined with his MK vs DC (cringing upon mentioning that) model. He had no dialogue in his intro, and very little time in the story. What little time he did spend in the story, he didn't really do much...

Then MKX came. And it did a lot of good for Kano. Aging him up did wonders for his design, and his costume, while simple overall, really works. This is the gruff, sleazy Kano I've wanted. I'd say it's his best design except maybe his Deadly Alliance look. And it carries over to the story too! He's a sleazy, traitorous bastard who will switch sides on the spot, if he has more to gain by doing so! His dialogue, pretty good, and his role in the story is pretty important.

Long story short, if I had to eliminate one of the original seven from this game, it would have been Kano. But now that I've seen what they did with him, I'm really glad they didn't!