Thanks for posting. I've seen the Mi Box at Walmart and wondered how it compared to Shield TV. Darius does the same thing on Shield TV where the assets won't load because it's not Android TV compatible. So, I hate to say it, but you might be out of luck. And I am intrigued by the Mi Box. What kind of controller are you using? And what other games work? Have you tried any of the Nvidia Lightspeed published games? Just curious on these types of things. I am a bit of a collector of Android-based devices.
Crap, I kind of owe you a response, don't I?
Anyway... the Mi Box is compatible with most USB game controllers, and if memory serves, Bluetooth controllers as well (most of the ones in my collection are covered with cobwebs, so don't quote me on that). The problem is, official Android games don't always play nice with them. Pac-Man 256 forces you to play with the remote, which is no fun at all, and although Forget-Me-Not USED to be compatible with USB controllers, that stopped with an update. Double Dragon Trilogy will work, but you need a mouse to have full access to the options menu, and changing the button configuration is frustrating. That usually goes like this...
PRESS BUTTON FOR JUMP
(hits B)
EXITING TO MAIN MENU
(expletives follow)
Emulators work fine, as you might expect. Well, SOME emulators do. The ones by Marat Fayzullin like to play a game of hide and seek with the options menu, which means you're pretty much stuck with what it gives you. Robert Broglia's EMU series tend to be more user friendly on Android TVs.
The thing that really chaps my backside about the MiBox is that it gives you a grand total of ONE USB port, which is hardly enough. Want to plug in a flash drive or a mouse along with a joystick? Better break out a hub! It adds to the bulk of the unit, and nobody wants that thing dangling off the end of the system like a malignant tumor. You're going to want that flash drive too, because internal storage fills up fast.
If you're just using it for TV apps, it's fine. It does what you need it to do, and it's compatible with the big names in video and audio streaming. However, as a game device it provides more frustration than entertainment. Most games aren't compatible with the Mi Box, as is typically the case with Android TV. The ones do work won't be optimized for Android TV and as such "work" in only the most generous sense of the word. Controllers may or may not function, data may or may not load, options may or may not be available to the user... every app is like Forrest Gump's mysterious box of chocolates, except the chocolate is made by Palmer's and will probably leave a bad taste in your mouth regardless of the flavor.
Put bluntly, the Mi Box is pretty lousy for gaming. It has the horsepower to handle most gaming applications, but the software just isn't designed for it. It's a huge problem with Android TV devices and why I can never embrace the format. Google just doesn't put in the effort to make sure these apps work. They don't care. You're buying it for television viewing, they think, and anything else that happens to work is just gravy. A Raspberry Pi is far better suited for gaming, AND it has swappable storage and more than one damn USB port.
By the way, I've never tried the Nvidia games you mentioned. Most likely I wouldn't be able to download them to anything but the Shield. Even if they "worked," I'm sure the Mi Box would find some way to ruin the experience.
