Holidays, as I understand it, are coming. As I write this, Christmas is barrelling down on us like a festive red-and-white juggernaut, and it’s the time of year when families reach for games. If your experience of games at gatherings can be summed-up with Charades and Pictionary, you might be pleased to know that there are loads more to choose from. I’ve been playing Hues and Cues, from The Op, another game looking to help you make merry when the hordes descend on your house for a gathering. Panettone or Pantone? But that doesn’t mean it’s not a fun game to play. The real question is will your family and friends enjoy playing it? On a player’s turn, they draw a color card and choose 1 of the 4 colors to be their target color. The location/coordinates of the color on the board is also listed below it on the card. Let’s go with the green. Now I have to come up with a cue. The other players score points depending on where their cones are in relation to the scoring frame. Guessing the exact square is worth 3 points. Each cone within the frame but not in the exact center scores 2 points. And each cone adjacent to the frame on the outside scores 1 point.

Hues and Cues Board Game Review - The Board Game Family Hues and Cues Board Game Review - The Board Game Family

When set out on a table, it’s hard not to stare at the Hues and Cues game board. The array of colors can be mesmerizing. And chances are, anyone who sees it out will be drawn to play. After this second pass, the cue-giver places the scoring frame on the board so that the target color is in the center of the scoring frame and players score points. An exact guess is 3 points! We have yet to play with players who are colorblind, so we don’t know what they’ll think of the game. But we could only imagine it would be tough. Hues and Cues does what it sets out to do, really well. It’s a lightweight, original, fun game for a group. It has universal appeal and pretty much anyone can enjoy it. I’m not sure how well it works for colour-blind people though, having said that. It’s a good game to add to a shelf of party-type games, like Wavelength, Codenames, The Resistance, Telestrations, and Balderdash. Social experiences. The Cue-Giver can then give a second clue (two-words this time). This gives everyone another chance to place a second pawn. (They can opt not to do this, if they think it isn’t beneficial to them!) Then the Cue-Giver places a 3x3 ‘fence’ over the coordinate of their colour. Every pawn inside this fence scores the Cue-Giver 1 point each. Any pawn on the exact square scores that player 3 points. Any pawn elsewhere within the fence scores 2 points. Any pawns on the immediate outside edge of the fence scores 1 point. Then the board resets, and the next player becomes the Cue-Giver…

How does Hues and Cues score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Most of our game plays have been with 4 or 5 players. But the game has enough color cones for 10 players to join in. And once we get past this COVID era, we’ll give it a shot with 10. Plenty of color cards.

Hues and Cues | Chaos Cards Hues and Cues | Chaos Cards

Hues And Cues is a party game by The Op. This is a game all about different colours – it’s like looking through a range of named paints! It’s a competitive game, where everyone’s playing against one another, trying to score the most points. But you need to help your opponents out sometimes. You’ll give out clever clues and word associations, that help both you and them! In fact, when playing with that group we don’t stop with just being the cue-giver twice. We just keep going until our lunch break is over. The one area where we’ve deviated from the game rules is having all players draw cards at the outset. Since the tough part (and most time-consuming part) of the game is coming up with the cues. By letting players have a card in hand long before their turns, they can be thinking of their potential cues before their turn comes. And that’s helped the games flow more smoothly. Some rounds we’ve all hit really close to the chosen color and other times we’ve been super spread out all over the board. Those rounds usually bring a lot of laughs. I thought I had a great word cue to give for the green color I chose. But when I found it on the board and saw the huge variety of hues around it, my mind started scrambling for how my cue would be interpreted. Would it be descriptive enough?Use examples from everyday life, from nature to pop culture, or materials and moods. Everyone around the table gets a turn to give cues and guess. The better your hints or guesses, the more points you earn. Play off others' experiences to narrow down what they have in mind! We really like that the scoring frame has numbers printed on the edges so you can easily remember how many points you get for being inside vs adjacent outside the walls. True, there are bunches of colours on the board which are almost indistinguishable from one another, but nuance is the secret sauce that makes Hues and Cues so tasty. It’s the difference between Dairy Milk and aubergine. It’s grass versus lime versus aircraft primer.

Hues and Cues - Firestorm Games Hues and Cues - Firestorm Games

So yes it’s a keeper. It’s just going to be a game that I keep on the game shelves at my office rather than at home. (Yes, I have game shelves at the office…) Once the cue is given, players take turns to guess the correct hues with their markers. Once all players have a guessed, another two-word hint is given and players get another opportunity to pinpoint the specific shade. For this second clue, we banned the use of words like light, dark and pale after someone followed the clue ‘poo’ with ‘darker poo’. They started placing their first cones and the questions immediately arose — the green of an avocado on the outside or on the inside once you cut it open? Our “let’s play again” game meter gets mixed results with Hues and Cues. Mom has been more on the side of “this is way to hard to come up with cues” whereas those at work are in the camp of “wish we could play it every day”. The thing that first drew me to Hues and Cues was its appearance. A vast and glossy board filled with a rainbow-encompassing grid of different shades and tones. A sort of Dulux Paint Chart in board game form (or Farrow and Ball, if you’re more that way inclined). I wasn’t sure whether to play it or start a mood board for a living room makeover with it.In addition, most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of targeted advertising. If you would like to find out more information, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/or http://www.youronlinechoices.com. Hopefully our experience with the game, and this review, will help you judge if Hues and Cues might be a game your family and friends would enjoy playing. But then I drew my first card, chose a color I thought would work well, and then looked at the board and my mind went haywire. Because then I had a chance to give another cue — up to two words to help zero them in on the right space. It could be as simple as saying “cut open”, “pre-cut”, “guacamole”, or changing it up and going a different route like “Douglas fir”. Oh, so close!