Giant Bomb's list of favourite games by country of origin

A fun thought experiment for a quiet Sunday before NFL football starts: could we come up with a definitive list of Giant Bomb's favourite games by country of origin? Now obviously choosing the site's favourite game from Japan or the USA is going to be tricky, but I think there's some interesting debate to be had. Franchises could replace individual games in judging, but exceptions would apply - I'd rather argue for the Forza series as a whole than just arguing for Forza 3, but the Fallout series is split into two camps, Black Isle/Obsidian (Fallout 1+2, New Vegas) and Bethesda (Fallout 3). Also this is strictly for games developed in specific countries; Ubisoft may be a French publisher, but Splinter Cell, Prince of Persia, and Assassin's Creed were all developed in Canada.

Let's leave the bigger more complex choices for later, and start with some of the smaller, more interesting nations in Europe that are either not typically thought of as gaming hotbeds or are emerging nations as regards game development. I'm sure I'll forget some.

Sweden

The correct answer as far as I'm concerned is Crusader Kings II, or pretty much any Paradox Interactive grand strategy game. But I highly suspect that a community vote would see one of the Battlefield games by DICE emerge victorious, with Starbreeze's Chronicles of Riddick, The Darkness, and Syndicate as runners-up.

Finland

The main reason why I thought of this experiment is because I realise just how many successful and important games have come from Finland, from Remedy Entertainment's Max Payne and Alan Wake, to Stardust and Super Stardust, from Trials HD to Trine, from indie games such as Outland, The Swapper, and Legend of Grimrock to the not-at-all-indie phenomenon of Angry Birds.

France

Delphine Software gave us Another World/Out of This World and Flashback, Quantic Dream gave us Omikron: The Nomad Soul, Farenheit/Indigo Prophecy, and Heavy Rain, Ubisoft gave us Rayman, Beyond Good & Evil, Ghost Recon, and Just Dance. Trackmania, ZombiU, Dishonored, Lumines, and Cities XL are all also French.

Germany

An eclectic mix of weird simulators and niche PC titles to full-blown AAA blockbusters. On one hand you have The Settlers, Farming Simulator, Gothic, the X series and more, and on the other you have Crysis, Far Cry, Spec Ops: The Line, and Dance Dance Revolution. Oh, and Velvet Assassin, because we all needed to be reminded of Velvet Assassin.

Hungary

OK, time for this thing to get weird. Ecco the Dolphin vs. Pinball FX/Zen Pinball. PICK A SIDE.

Poland

There's basically three big hitters here; Techland, developers of Call of Juarez and Dead Island; People Can Fly, developers of Painkiller and Bulletstorm; and CD Projekt RED, developers of The Witcher series. Oh and don't forget Hard Reset, which was made by former members of PCF and CDP-R.

The Netherlands

The Killzone franchise isn't the only Dutch game/series of note; remember Rocket Riot, the hectic XBLA dual joystick shooter? Or maybe you'd prefer Toki Tori, De Blob, or the Overlord games.

Russia

There is one correct answer here. And it clearly is Cargo - Quest for Gravity.

Oh yeah? Well what about Bionic Commando Rearmed? Oh I get it, suddenly the cool game doesn't deserve any recognition. I see how it is.

I guess the obvious one for Australia is L.A. Noire, even if Team Bondi did crash and burn horribly due to terrible management and what have you.

I'd just like to point out that Lumines is Japanese.

Tetris is the only correct answer for Russia.

Does BioShock count?

Would you say the entire GTA franchise qualifies for a single spot? Or should it be divided up into 'pre-HD' and 'post-HD'?

Either way, I'd say that's a fairly strong contender for pick of the UK.

Denmark

Hitman.

Sweden

Hotline Miami, Ground Control 1-2, Rallisport Challenge 2, GTR 2, GT Legends, World In Conflict, Magicka, Amnesia, Just Cause 2, Renegade Ops, Mirror's Edge, Year Walk, Minecraft.

Norway

The Longest Journey.

Czech Republic

Machinarium, Botanicula, Mafia, Hidden and Dangerous, Operation Flashpoint, ArmA 3.

I'd nominate Krush Kill 'N Destroy for Australia, and maybe Seek And Destroy or RoadKillPlatypus for New Zealand? Iceland has the obvious choice EVE Online.

When it comes to Sweden, Denmark, Norway Finland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany it would kinda be more interesting to create a list of favorite game based on the demoscene groups behind them, rather than country, because just about every game developer in those countries have roots in the C64, Amiga, Atari or PC crack/demoscenes (with Starbreeze being the former scene group Triton, Remedy was Future Crew, and DICE, Avalanche and Fatshark have plenty of people from Razor1911, The Red Sector and other cracking groups in them).

But, well, I'd nominate Divine Divinity for Belgium.

For Hungary, Ecco the Dolphin is the sensible choice. You aren't a monster, are you? Dolphins, man!

For Romania, maybe the Silent Hunter series (not sure which of them is the best)?

How can not Commander Blood (or at least Captain Blood), or maybe E.Y.E Divine Cybermancy be in the running for most french favorite games from France?

For Denmark I'd suggest Limbo.

What about Minecraft?

My own country (Denmark) isn't that well represented t though we do have Limbo from Playdead and IO Interactive with Hitman, and honourable mention of Freedom Fighters.

Norway's Funcom shouldn't be forgotten, The longest Journey series is still one of my all time favourite game series (Last game is currently being developed by Red Thread Games.)

Scotland has to be one of the GTA games, right?

fuck cargo, The Void is way better.

FlatOut used to be cool and it used to be from Finland. Pathway to Glory, the one worthwhile N-Gage game must count for something too, r-right?

Amazing games getting built all around the world! Such a great time for gaming.

So what about 1C Company? Pretty good games coming out of Russia. Both STALKER games were great.

Japan = Demon's Souls

Canada/USA = Mass Effect

I like that you list Germany and France as part of the "smaller, emerging nations" of Europe.

@tourgen: stalker games are Ukrainian yo.

Reading through that list made me realize I'm Finnish and haven't played any of the games you mentioned.

..But I have spent countless of hours with DICE's Battlefield games.