Ori and the Blind Forest is one of my favourite games of the past five years. I've played through it multiple times, and even purchased it a second time (as the Definitive Edition) not just to get more content, but to also give an extra bit of money to the devs (I had bought the original game with a heavy Steam discount).

I have always played the game using Steam's "Remote Play" feature (previously called "Steam Home Streaming"). The game runs on my Windows gaming PC in our study, but I play the game on my living room TV and surround speakers via a client device and my home network.

Previously, that client device was a Windows-based Celeron NUC computer, or a briefly-used Steam Link hardware device. But I recently replaced both of those with an Nvidia Shield TV Pro.

Well, the long-anticipated sequel to Ori just dropped on PC and XBox One: Ori and the Will of the Wisps. I couldn't wait to play it, but I was anxious about buying it on Steam and trying it with an untested Remote Play setup.

Luckily, Android TV on the Shield TV Pro has a very capable Steam Link app which essentially functions the same as the discontinued Steam Link hardware. It has gotten a few great updates recently, which has made using a Playstation 4 controller with the Shield pretty good. The only thing I can't do with the PS4 controller on the Shield is bring up the Steam overlay using the PS button, because the Shield uses that button as the command to return to its home screen.

The game itself is awesome. It's a more fleshed-out Metroidvania game than the original, with a lot more abilities, characters, quests, and collectibles. The visuals are amazing, even with it streaming over the network. The story was a real pull on the heartstrings too, even after the knowledge from the first game.

I ended up putting in 20+ hours to complete everything 100%, and have no regrets.

The next test of the Shield as an all-in-one replacement for the NUC is to see how it functions as an emulation machine. I used the NUC to play the occasional Super Nintendo game via an emulator, but now that the Nintendo Switch has official first-party support for most of my favourite SNES games (Yoshi's Island I'm looking at you 😉), I'm not sure if it will be worth the effort on the Shield.