Actually its probably little more than a little bit of effects when Werehog hits the creatures, you probably won't even notice it... but for those that do E10 is the safest way to go without being sued. >.>
The china gameplay video actually looks pretty cool. Still reserving my opinion until the game comes out, but it looks like it still has the potential to be a pretty good game in its own right. This isn't going to be the spiritual successor to S3K we've all been waiting for and anything indicating it as such is purely hype. Sonic's gameplay has transformed into something far more speed-based, now provided it properly gives you enough freedom to progress through the level in your own ways, multiple paths last longer than a few seconds (more like Rush and less like Rivals), and its polished, then it can be something worth playing at least for those that enjoyed SatSR.
And hopefully Were-hog will have a stronger platforming emphasis for those of us that want it. The combat is looking pretty good and the Werehog segment we saw in the Gamespot interview seemed to have quite a bit of platforming. People are saying God of War but I've never played that so I can't necessarily give a proper opinion on that.
Personally I've been feeling rather discouraged about this game, but its largely because of all the negative comments and not really anything I've seen. When it comes out, I'm hoping it will be good, but I'm not going to be too personally disappointed though I will feel bad that if this game bombs because of how it looks like such a large percentage of the Sonic fanbase is placing their bets alongside this game.
EDIT:
SRB2WikiSonicMaster said:
I just told my little sister about the Werehog concept and she thinks it's really dumb, too.
It is totally stupid how they have the emeralds somehow change Sonic into a different form that acts differently, they've never done that in the original games... =P
Seriously though it is kind of an odd concept, and I feel the same way about Wind Waker, the Zelda continuity in general, all things Star Wars except a percentage of the movies, Sonic with a sword, a Sonic RPG... actually come to think of it, a movie entirely about a robot that can't speak English is kind of a weird idea as well.
Quite a few of these listed have been well received actually, so while it really does seem like a dumb idea, that still doesn't mean anything. Now unfortunately there has been very little of the Werehog gameplay to speak of, so nobody really knows if its going to be executed properly. To be honest though, the werehog, while a bit odd and perhaps "dumb", doesn't really bother me.
EDIT #2: Forgot to mention an online multiplayer Sonic first-person-shooter... classic-style. XD