Hues and Cues First Impressions
Hues and Cues has players give clues so players choose the right blues.
Or any other colour.
What hue do you think of when we say “apple”? This is a vibrant game of colourful communication where players are challenged to make connections to colours with words.
Hues and Cues Game Overview
Quick Rules Summary
There is a board with 480 colour squares in a grid.
One player is secretly given a card with 4 of those colours on it, they’ll give a one-word clue related to that colour.
The other players will then take turns putting a cone marker on the colour they think that is.
Once complete, the player will give a second, two-word clue and everyone will place a second cone on the board.
How do you win?
Once everyone has had 2 guesses, a frame is put over the correct answer. The player in the middle gets 3 points, the player in the other 8 spaces in the frame gets 2 points, and everyone in the spaces outside of the frame gets 1 point.
The clue giver gets 1 point for each cone within the frame.
After so many rounds, the player with the most points is the winner.
Main Mechanisms
Communication and deduction are about it I think.
USP
Having players pick a colour is the game’s unique point.
Theme
Nope.
Setup
Tip out the box and you’re nearly there!
Components & Artwork
Very standard to be fair.
The shades of colour on the cards didn’t exactly match the shades on the board.
Ease of Teaching
This is very easy to teach.
There are some rules around what you can and can’t say that players need to know.
Similar Games
H&Cs does colours but Werewords for Words and Concept for lots of different things are my favourite clue-giving games.
Hues and Cues Review
Positives
Not much to teach, all 10 players can get straight in.
I loved giving the clues and getting creative with what I was giving.
Giving the second clue to (legally) move the first-round guesses closer towards the target was really hard but really satisfying.
Negatives
It has problems with the rules that any limited communication game has.
Summary
The best game I played at UK Games Expo 2023
Jesta ThaRogue