Hey Swoopie, we really appreciate your comments!
I agree that the current gameplay features and balancing sometimes boil down to (bad) luck. We considered adding ways to move quicker, like a dash, a sticky tongue, or even teleporting, but sadly, we didn't have enough time to implement those.
You can see when and to what color you're changing via the UI in the bottom right. A sound, like a countdown, before the change is a great idea.
Now that I'm thinking about it, an alternative way to communicate this to the player without adding more UI is to make Huey's skin color blink two seconds before he changes, back and forth, from the current to the new color.
Great input, thanks Swoopie! Glad you enjoyed playing as Hueeeeeeeeeeeeeee