Octopus Game 456: K Challenge (or Octopus Games: K Challenge 456, as it's known in the app store) is a low-quality cash grab that's made to resemble the popular TV series Octopus Game. Watch ads in order to complete brief, difficult, and buggy obstacle courses and fighting arenas with terrible, laggy graphics and lackluster controls.

The Korean television show Octopus Game took the world by storm in late 2021. The show revolved around an elaborate contest in which 456 players participate in deadly real-life challenges in an attempt to win a large cash prize. The success of Octopus Game launched a whole slew of knockoff video games, including the successful, light-hearted Crab Game. Crab Game's lighthearted humor, goofy scenarios, and multiplayer nature turned it into an instant success.

Octopus Game 456: K Challenge (or Octopus Game 456: K Challenge, as it's known in the app store) is one of the many Octopus Game-inspired games that have flooded the market. It's totally free, with no in-app purchases, meaning that anyone can and try the game. In Octopus Games, you fight against a variety of AI opponents to get past a number of challenges very loosely based on Octopus Game concepts, including obstacle courses, murder arenas, strange races, and more.

While Octopus Games won't waste your money, it will waste your time. The game is entirely supported by advertisements - or, more accurately, the pile of advertisements in Octopus Games is poorly supported by brief stints of gameplay. It's likely that you'll end up spending more time watching ads than playing Octopus Games. Each death requires another ad view, and with levels being incredibly short, deadly, and difficult, you'll often only play the game for a few seconds before you find another ad queuing up.

In fairness to Octopus Games, you can argue that watching an ad every so often is less intrusive than having to balance an energy bar or pay real-life money to play additional levels. That argument is difficult to make after playing Octopus Games for a few minutes. The game's 3d arenas are not well made. In addition to poor graphics, lackluster controls, and challenging scenarios, the game doesn't run well enough on modern phones for the gameplay to be fun. 

When you combine all of these unsatisfactory elements you wind up with a situation where you're spending time doing something you don't want to do in order to have more chances to play a buggy, laggy, unnecessarily difficult game. The AI can and will one-shot you in seconds in the murder arenas. Spinning traps on the obstacle courses have massive hitboxes that seemingly reach far beyond their models, while other game modes are best played by sitting still and letting the AI do the work for you. Sure, you can brag to your friends that you beat a level, but all you're really proving is that you're willing to sit down and watch dozens of advertisements to play a game for a few minutes.

Octopus Game 456: K Challenge is free. If you'd like to try it out, there's nothing wrong with the game and giving it a spin. Be prepared to spend a lot of your data  advertisements, however, and don't expect to actually play the game for any length of time without spending even more time watching ads. It's an app that's probably safe to skip.

The games in Octopus Game 456: K Challenge are tests of knowledge and experience as much as they are tests of skill and reflexes. Here's everything you need to know to beat these levels in as few retries as possible, enabling you to coast through the game while watching as few ads as possible.

First, in the "red light, green light" game, you'll have trouble reacting to the giant child turning around in time to stop your character's movement. Instead, listen to the game's music for cues as to when you should start and stop moving. The audio should give you plenty of advanced warning and enable you to pass the level with ease.

For the game's various murder arenas, remember that your goal is to be the last one standing, not the person with the biggest kill streak. Instead of trying to actively hunt down opponents, concentrate on staying safe for the first phase of the game. Create distance between you and your opponents, take easy shots when the opportunity presents itself, and do your best to dodge projectiles that start heading your way. When there are only a few people left, you'll be able to hunt down your opponents with no distractions and take the round.

For the challenge where you jump on glass platforms, think of each jump as a coin flip. There's a 50% chance that you'll be right with each jump. With something like 7 distinct jumps, the odds of you getting each jump correct are 7 in 1,000. In other words, never jump first. Always let an NPC test out each platform and only proceed when you're sure that the jump ahead is safe.

In the game's murderous obstacle courses, the key to success is to go slow. Just like in other aspects of life, slow and steady will win the race. There's no point in rushing ahead to misjudge the timing on one of the moving obstacles and die instantly. Instead, take the course at a relaxed pace and only proceed forward when you know you're safe.

If you're getting frustrated at Octopus Game 456: K Challenge, don't worry. The game is designed to be tough in order to get you to watch more ads. The AI opponents don't play by the same set of rules that you do. If you're getting tired of watching ads, consider looking for a modified APK that will allow you to play the game without wasting your time and data. These hacked packages won't give the developers any money, but the exploitative nature of Octopus Games makes this a much murkier moral decision than it is with other games that respect their players more.

Are you a Octopus Game 456: K Challenge fan? Do you disagree with our assessment of the game? What are your favorite minigames? Did we miss any tips and tricks? Let us know in the comments below!