Hue is a 2-D platforming action puzzle game.  You play as Hue, a boy who finds himself in a colorless world.  After exploring for a bit, you’ll discover letters from a mysterious woman who has dabbled in some dangerous color experiments and has now made herself invisible.  It’s up to Hue to rescue her and solve the mystery.  Hue gains the power to change the background to several colors in the spectrum, which he uses to solve puzzles and bypass obstacles.  It’s kind of like a more puzzley version of Runbow.  Hue is available for the PS4, Vita, Xbox One, and PC, but reviewed on Vita here.

In the game, you’ll explore several caves with puzzle rooms. Use the directional pad to move around, and the buttons to jump and push and pull blocks.  Use the right analog stick to change the background color.  If there are any blocks, doors, or other objects that are the same color as the background, they’ll disappear and you’ll be able to walk right through them.  That’s how you solve the game’s puzzles.  As you play, you’ll gather more colors to change the background to, which allows for more complex and trickier puzzles.  There are some sections that are more action-oriented, too.  Scattered about the areas are hidden beakers that you can collect.  They don’t do anything but add an extra challenge for those who want it.

The game has very few problems, and most of them are minor.  If you are colorblind, there is a mode where you can add symbols to the backgrounds and objects, but I still think it would be pretty tough to play this game if you are colorblind.  In some of the action sections, it can be tricky when you have to jump and quickly change to a different color, as you have to remove your thumb from the buttons to the right analog stick.  The game also isn’t very clear about saving the game, but it does autosave after you enter a room, and you can cross save to the PS4 version as well.  And finally, the game can get a little repetitive after a while, but it’s still a pretty fun little action puzzler.

Kid Factor:

Violence is pretty minimal.  If you get hit by rocks, spikes, or other dangerous obstacles, you just flop over and start back at the last door you entered.  Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, but not necessary as most of it has spoken voice as well.  Younger gamers may get frustrated at some of the more challenging puzzles and obstacles.  Hue is rated E for Everyone.

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