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

Not much that I played, so I guess my choice will be FlatOut.

Baba is You is crazy good. Trine 2 was one of my favourite games on the Wii U.

For now, Max Payne, but I hope my vote to change to Alan Wake 2 in a couple of weeks. =D

I haven't played Alan Wake II yet, but it sounds like it would be a strong contender. Pending that, my pick is Cities: Skylines II. It's a bit of an uneven mess that still needs more time, but it also fixes my main gripes with the first game, which I've played for over 600 hours, so it's still an easy pick. It's not that I even love the Cities: Skylines games, it's just that I find myself spending so much time playing them. I can take fairly long breaks too, but eventually I come back anyway. It's just so nice to return to them.

It's not my top pick, but one Finnish game people seem to be fond of is Noita. It's a pretty fun game in my opinion too, but I'm probably not quite among its target audience.

Haven't played Alan Wake 2 yet, so currently I'd give it to either Alan Wake 1 for its atmosphere and style, or Trine 4 for its gorgeous art direction and having the smoothest gameplay of the series.

Oh, I missed Alan Wake 1. So, this one is definitely my favorite.

I hope very soon I can play Alan Wake 2 and maybe change my mind.

My top pick goes to the game that shaped the mobile world. Nokia's Snake wasn't just a game, it was a phenomenon that essentially launched the mobile gaming industry. Having a digital game readily available for entertainment anytime, anywhere was revolutionary. As Snake evolved, so did Nokia's mobile gaming offerings, with titles like Space Impact joining the fun on newer models.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OtWJV4DcdM

Nokia clearly recognized the immense potential of mobile gaming, leading them to experiment with the N-Gage, a device well ahead of its time. A special shout-out here to RedLynx's Pathway to Glory, a truly memorable title.

Nokia's influence extended to developers like Rovio, who later created the global sensation Angry Birds. However, for me, Rovio's most impactful work remains the Darkest Fear trilogy, which I'll always remember.

And a quick nod to a couple of other games that left an impression: Habbo Hotel, where I spent many hours, and Oceanhorn, for its valiant effort to capture that classic Zelda.

Max Payne 1 for me, though I love 2 as well (I have to admit, I'm not big on anything Remedy made since then).

Honorable mentions to Trine series (especially 1/2), fantastic puzzle platformers, that shine additionally in 3 person couch co-op, and Legend of Grimrock 1/2, great nod to old school 1st person dungeon crawlers. And Angry Birds. Yes, I love physics based destruction (among other things) in all forms, even when it's birds.

I still haven't got around some Finnish games I'd like to play, like Noita and Returnal...

Angry Birds win this for me. The amount of content you got from one dollar. One might call it simple, but the formula was perfect for playtime in short sessions on the go.
Sadly the current version is bloated with stuff that marginalizes the game play, but the original release with the first few updates was great.