Fresh off a broken hand suffered only two weeks ago, Hughes was the star for the Storm on Sunday as he helped lay on three tries in a pummelling of the Sea Eagles.
His halves partner Cameron Munster also impressed, while winger Grant Anderson scored a hat-trick to help Melbourne stay in the NRL's top four.
The only concerns for Melbourne were early marks for fullback Ryan Papenhuyzen and winger Xavier Coates, who both cited hamstring tightness.
Otherwise this was one to saviour for the Storm as they rebounded from last week's shock loss to St George Illawarra to show again why they are a premiership force.
The Storm blew Manly apart in two separate seven-minute stints, going from 0-2 down to 18-2 up without Manly touching the ball early in the first half.
And while Manly got it back to 18-10 at halftime, the Storm repeated the dose after the break with another trio of tries, while Manly didn't have a play-the-ball.
Reigning Dally M Medallist Hughes was at the centre of it all.
His first moment of magic came in the first half when he laid on a perfectly lofted ball for Anderson, putting it out in front of the winger to run on to and score.
With the game back in the balance after the break, the Kiwi No.7 fooled Manly when he looked left and threw a long cut-out ball to the right for Anderson to score again.
In the next set Hughes did the damage from inside his own half, throwing a dummy to beat the defence, before running downfield and helping send Papenhuyzen over.
Muster also had his fingerprints on the flogging, putting Stefano Utoikamanu across for Melbourne's first, before the five-eighth scored the second himself.
For Melbourne, this was the perfect response in their highest ever points haul against their arch-rivals.
And for Manly, it took their record without the injured Tom Trbojevic to 16 from 48 since the start of 2021, compared with 38 from 58 with him.
Trbojevic is due back from a knee injury in a month, but it is unlikely he would have saved them on Sunday.
The Sea Eagles did well to get back into the match at halftime and hung in the arm-wrestle for the first seven minutes after the break.
But when Ben Trbojevic made a half bust and was ruled to have played the ball incorrectly, Melbourne got the ball, scored, and the Sea Eagles didn't cross again until they were 48-10 down.
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