Octavius King (real name Louis, he/they), formerly known as Octav1us Kitten is a British YouTuber and Twitch streamer. Their YouTube channel sees him cover a wide range of games and games-related hardware, but is slightly slanted towards the 80s and 90s; particularly software and hardware that was popular in Britain during those eras, such as the ZX Spectrum.
His videos take the form of reviews, retrospectives or guides to certain consoles and home computers, as well as top tens. There's also vlogs showing off video game hauls, playing with newly-acquired hardware and discussing mental health issues.
His YouTube channel can be found here
and his Twitch channel here.
Oh, and he sings his own Theme Song.
Video list
Game reviews:
- Mighty Mulan
- Stretch Panic
- Mouse Trophy
- OverBlood (with AffroShow)
- Hungry Horace
- Horace Goes Skiing
- Horace And The Spiders
- Softporn Adventure
- Manic Miner
- Jet Set Willy
- Sonic Mania
- CrazyBus
- Squij
- Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
- Dont Buy This
- Dream Penguin Adventure
- Santas Xmas Capers
- Santa Claus Saves The Earth
- Jazz Jackrabbit: Holiday Hare
- Plumbers Don't Wear Ties
- Tanglewood
- Catz
- John Robertson's 'The Dark Room'
- Granny's Garden
Hardware reviews:
- Palmtex SuperMicro
- Barcode Battler
- Casio Loopy
- GameTrak
- Pandora's Box 5
- Tiger Game.com
- Super Cobra Copter
- Entex Select-a-Game
Retrospectives/Guides:
- The Atari Jaguar saga
- Guide to the Amstrad CPC's Roland
- Guide to the Sinclair ZX Spectrum
- Teletext and Mr. Biffo's Digitiser
Miscellaneous/Tat:
- Tiger R-Zone SuperScreen
- 80s Robutler Robotic Tray
- After Burner Tiger LCD Tabletop Game
7 Days of Scary 2017:
- Bubsy 3D
- I. M. Meen
- Sex Vixens From Space
- SkiFree
- Charlie's Angels
- Custers Revenge
- Duke Nukem Forever
7 Days of Scary 2018:
- 3D Monster Maze (ft. RetroPrincess)
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (ft. Jaws19)
- Texas Chainsaw Massacre (ft. The Gaming Muso)
- Frankenstein's Monster (ft. SarahsGameCollection)
- Soft & Cuddly (ft. pixels.ltd)
- Duckula 2 (ft. Odd Pod)
- Ghostbusters (1984) (ft Paul Gannon)
Rats & Tat
- 1980s Tomy Water Games Waterfuls
- Astro Wars 190s Grandstand
- Tomytronic 3D Games
Note: Unless otherwise stated, tropes relate to the character of Octav1us as opposed to the real-life person
Tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Hungry Horace and the SkiFree yeti could both count as these to Octavius, given how persistent they are.
- AcCENT Upon the Wrong SylLABle: Has been known to pronounce 'console' as 'con-soul' due to his Yorkshire upbringing.
- The Alcoholic: Look, if you constantly had video game characters breaking into your house, you'd be drinking too...
- Animal-Eared Headband: Sports a pair of cat ears whenever he's in-character.
- The nature of these ears zig-zags; in one video, he covers the cat ears to block out an awful noise. In another video, he openly wonders why he keeps sleeping in the damn things.
- Apocalypse How: Causes at least a class 0 through the heinous act of... playing a poor-taste ZX Spectrum game. The news did warn him, though.
- Apocalyptic Log: Has described his channel as "me wearing cat ears and playing old video games with the nice backdrop of my ongoing mental breakdown", so this might qualify. He's pretty honest and open about his mental health issues.
- Blatant Lies: Comes up a few times:
- States that his Pac-Man video will be super simple with no flashy effects... right before Ms. Pac Man bursts in through the wall.
- Claims that he would make good use of a device that allowed him to make his own applications. Cut to him creating a phone app with a cat face that spins when you tap it.
- Broke the Rating Scale:
- Part 1 of the Duke Nukem Forever review starts off with an 'unfunny bad taste count' meter. Which explodes.
- Part 2 starts off with a new counter made of reinforced steel and bulletproof glass. Which explodes. Twice.
- The Cameo:
- Nostalgia Nerd - a fellow British YouTuber - has shown up in a few of his videos, and vice versa.
- Has guested in a few Barshens videos.
- His 7 Days of Scary series for 2018 features a different YouTuber in each video.
- Featured in a Guru Larry video where they try and cut food with a Spectrum Vega.
- Covered in Gunge: During his review of Ghostbusters (1984), thanks to ectoplasm-spitting ghosts.
- Cute Machines: Has this reaction when he finds out the Robutler note comes with an attachable bow-tie. He's practically offended when he realises that the tray shows signs of use, but the bow-tie attachment has never even been opened.
- Deadly Nosebleed: The sheer crassness of Duke Nukem Forever gives him one of these. Eventually upgrades to Blood from the Mouth.
- Delivery Stork: How he becomes the parent of Baby Pac Man. With Ms. Pac Man.
- Determinator: For his 2018 edition of 7 Days of Scary, Louis managed to cobble together contributions from 7 different other YouTubers in a severely limited time frame, all whilst looking for a new place to live. Then his electricity was cut off for 2 days. And he STILL got the first episode up before Halloween.
- Dogged Nice Girl: Is this to Solid Snake, whom he calls frequently in the hopes of getting a date. May or may not have resulted in a restraining order.
- The End... Or Is It?: After defeating the Icon of Sin and lifting his Halloween curse at the end of the Duke Nukem Forever review, the Daikatana logo flashes on screen.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- During the first 7 Days Of Scary, there's a wall calendar where the entire month has 'EVERYTHING IS FUCKING TERRIFYING' scrawled over it.
- If you look at the label on some of the wine bottles, you'll see it's named 'Chateau du Spinster'.
- Halloween Special: His 7 Days of Scary series; every October, he's forced to play a week's worth of bad games from his childhood.
- Revealed to be the result of a deal he made with a genie. Despite the torment, there's no way he's giving that XBox One back.
- Hollywood Restraining Order: Believes himself to have a few pending from some well-known personalities, as shown in his Granny's Garden review:
- Angry Video Game Nerd.
- "Fit glasses lad from FFXV".
- Solid Snake.
- Run The Jewels.
- Nostalgia Nerd note .
- Ashens note .
- Lazy Game Reviews.
- Improvised Weapon:
- He gets out of a few situations with a well-thrown wine bottle. Less of a weapon, more just something he has a lot of lying around.
- General Custer meets his end by way of pissed-off Octy and a floor lamp.
- Horace surprises Octy and gets a BBC Micro upside the head for his troubles. It's a wonder he survived.
- Intercourse with You: The Softporn Adventure review features a barely-concealed example of this, sung from the perspective of the protagonist. And it's hilarious.
- Madness Mantra: When attacked in a game, he will often repeat the phrase "THERE'S A LAD" a few times. Sometimes followed with a bonus "AND HE'S NOT HAPPY".
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Pretty much done word for word when he tries swiping the barcode from his anti-depressants into the Barcode Battler and gets a ridiculous stat boost from it.
- A Rare Sentence: From the Duke Nukem Forever review:"I can't believe I'm about to say this sentence, but wall boobs have really pissed me off!"
- Self-Deprecation: Honestly, most of the Take That! moments are directed at himself.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: Usually done with video game sound effects.
- Speaking Simlish: Hungry Horace, the SkiFree Yeti, Pac-Man and Squishes are all voiced this way.
- Take That!: The Job Centre note is a regular target for this.
- There Was a Door: Frequently has his home invaded by video game characters, and very few of them seem to realise this trope
- Subverted by Horace, who works out that a 2D character can just slip under the door.
- Theme Song: A chiptune ditty about wanting to play games with a boy, sung our host.
- Unusual Pets for Unusual People: Squishes, his octopus-companion-friend thing, somewhere between Non-Human Sidekick and Sapient Pet. Usually found snarking from the sidelines.
- Visual Pun: The 'unfunny bad taste counter' from the Duke Nukem Forever review features an animation of a scraper and a barrel. Work it out.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Baby Pac Man hasn't made many appearances since his debut. Lamp Shaded at one point:Squishes: What about your son?*cut to Baby Pac Man in his crib*Octavius: Oh yeah... that video was so rubbish I forgot I had a baby with Ms. Pac-ManOctavius: ...have you been feeding him?
- Xtreme Kool Letterz: That's Octav1us, with a 'one'.
"Because I'm awkward"
Mew!
