Created by Fiddlesticks and published by Curve Digital, Hue is the type of game that should not be judged based on first look. Normal store listing(Nintendo E-shop, PSN Store, etc) will generally give you a reasonable look at a game to help a player decide whether or not to purchase a game. In this case, I can say that those stores do not give Hue the justice it truly deserves. Originally released in 2016, and recently released to the Nintendo Switch in 2019, Hue is the story of a young boy in search of his mother in a colorless world. Along the way, a shrouded figure helps guide you towards missing pieces of a color ring. This ring allows you to restore color to the world, as well as allows you to change the color of object in the world to allow you to move forward to the next area.
The game is equal parts platforming and puzzle solving. The level design is amazing. It weaves each area together, and at the same time, makes you want to go back through areas again to find the hidden beakers. The concept of adding color back to the world is great. One of the best uses of this is everything of a particular disappearing when you set the world to that color. This leads to so many possibilities for solving puzzles. The game designers set the players up for success as they ease the player into the puzzle solving.
For me though, the best part of this game is in the music and voice acting. Let’s start with Anna Acton who played the voice of the mother. Being as you only interact with your mother through the letters you find, Anna brought a sense of warmth, caring, and excitement to the mother. The mother genuinely cares about the welfare of her son, but she is equally excited that she made an amazing breakthrough while at University. Anna did an amazing job conveying the mother’s emotions that I personally loved finding each of the letters to see what came next from the mother. Accompanying the voice acting is an extremely relaxing, yet fitting score from Alkis Livathinos. The piano fits the game so well and brings with it a relaxing element. With how frustrating some of the puzzles who get, the piano helps to calm the player into just sitting back and truly enjoying this truly great game.
Overall, this game is a fantastic pickup for anyone that owns an XBOX, PS4, or Switch. The game will challenge your mind with the steadily increasing difficulty of the puzzles, keep you wanting to explore more because of the world design, but also keep you relaxed with the music and voice acting. Fiddlesticks truly developed a great indie and they have a great future ahead.
