Im suspicious that they won't return to the boost formula. Iizuka has stated in interviews that those games weren't fun to make and were very taxing development wise which is why SLW exists in the first place.
Maybe a happy medium can be achieved?
As a long time Sonic fan since the age of 5, here's what I think:
Shortly after Sonic Lost World came out, there was a rumor floating on the Internet that Sonic Team isn't moving back to the boost-to-win formula, and neither the Lost World formula, either. And back during the initial announcement of Sonic Boom, Iizuka already stated that ST is already working on another mainstream game with more "traditional gameplay and mechanics", so I'd assume that they're working on a system similar (if not the same) to the momentum based platforming of the Genesis games as well as the Dreamcast Adventure series to an extent, and level design that's more reminiscent of those two eras. If that's the case, I'd be grateful!
I wouldn't say throw out Lost World's mechanics entirely, either--they could just reprogram the Dash trigger from LW into exclusively a Super Peel-Out/Parkour trigger. The Parkour mechanic is a fun idea, just with the right level design, it can be used to think outside the box and take shortcuts that no gamer would even expect!
Although it's leaving me to wonder if ST is still currently using the Havok physics engine for Sonic games, or if they switched to an easier system to work with.
