See Master thread for links to other countries threads and poll, read rules, and tell me which country should receive a thread next:
https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/249268/master-thread-favorite-games-from-different-countries/
Sorry for the long wait!
We return to the Nordics with Finland, probably for the last time, as I don’t see Iceland getting a thread. Finland has quite an impressive gaming industry, it might not rival the neighboring super power, Sweden, but compared to other similarly sized countries, it is certainly impressive. It has produced substantially more heavy hitters than Norway for sure, and likely also towers over Denmark. Remedy Entertainment has been their big AA developer (and probably AAA for their recent games) throughout the last almost 30 years, but recently Housemarque has stepped into the same category. And it doesn’t end there…
Some notable Finnish developers and their games:
Remedy Entertainment:
Almost an industry giant, Remedy in many ways laid the foundation of the modern third person shooter with the first two Max Payne games, which did for gaming what The Matrix did for action films. They have since moved in a more narrative direction with Alan Wake and Control. The acclaim has been huge, even winning the studio some game of the year awards.
Notable games:
Death Rally
Max Payne
Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
Alan Wake
Quantum Break
Control
Alan Wake 2
Housemarque:
Gaining prominence mainly due to some fairly well acclaimed arcade-style games. Many probably remember their PS4 launch title Resogun and later Nex Machina. Things changed dramatically however, when Sony decided to back the much more ambitious AAA rouge-like, Returnal. Sony would also go on to acquire the studio.
Notable games:
Super Stardust
Outland
Resogun
Alienation
Nex Machina
Returnal
Colossal Order:
A developer specialized in simulation games. Their debut Cities in Motion got some acclaim, but Cities: Skylines was their big blockbuster, basically replacing SimCity as the lead IP of the city building genre. The launch of the sequel was… controversial, however it still got a lot of players.
Notable games:
Cities in Motion
Cities in Motion 2
Cities: Skylines
Cities: Skylines II
Bugbear Entertainment
Always nice to have some good old-fashioned arcade racers! Bugbear Entertainment has made them in spades, rarely disappoint their core audience. The FlatOut series is of course a cult favorite, but more recently Wreckfest also got celebrated. Bugbear even got to develop titles for two of the biggest franchises in the genre, Sega Rally and Ridge Racer.
Notable games:
Rally Trophy
FlatOut
FlatOut 2
Sega Rally Revo
Ridge Racer Unbounded
Wreckfest
Rovio Entertainment
Having made a cultural icon and one of the most played mobile games deserves a mention. I don’t even know how many iterations of Angry Birds there are, but these guys made the original. For years the franchise was sort of looked down upon, but gotta admit, the gameplay loop is rock solid and addictive, and the animation is really good, especially for an early iPhone game.
Notable games:
Angry Birds
Bad Piggies
Angry Birds Star Wars
Nokia
Maybe staying a bit in the same lane with the mobile focus. Nokia probably doesn’t warrant much text based on their in-house developed games, they mainly worked as a publisher. I forgot to mention in my thread for The Netherlands, that we were dealing with a country that had developed video game hardware too, in the Philips-CDI. Now I am partially excused, as that system was a giga flop, with essentially zero games worth mentioning. Finland too is a country of not video game hardware development, with the Nokia N-Gage, which did at least do better than what Philips attempted, and had some decent titles.
The main reason Nokia is mentioned here however is that they actually did develop a few video games inhouse, most notably the extremely popular Snake.
Notable games:
Snake
Snake II
Ubisoft RedLynx:
Of course Ubisoft has a studio in Finland too, though RedLynx started out as an independent studio. Much like Bugbear, they mainly do arcade racers (actually approaching racing platformers), mostly known for the Trials series. Interestingly they also developed one of the most acclaimed N-Gage exclusives, Pathway to Glory.
Notable games:
Pathway to Glory
Reset Generation
Trials HD
Trials Evolution
Frozenbyte:
This indie developer has been active for decades, though has still not made a major blockbuster. The Shadowgrounds and Trine games have received a lot of acclaim however. Especially Trine 2 seems to be very beloved.
Notable games:
Shadowgrounds: Survivor
Trine 2
Trine 4
Other games to consider:
Habbo Hotel
Ultrakill
Ant Raid
Baba is you
Clash of Clans
Triplane Turmoil
Slick N Slide
Brawl Stars
Barotrauma
