In 2024, the Canadian video game industry was worth $5,100,000,000. That’s 5.1 billion dollars across 821 active studios, employing some 34,000 Canadians, according to the Entertainment Software Association of Canada.
Yet even as exports like television’s Kim’s Convenience or the Oscar-winning Women Talking gain widespread acclaim – and at least a passing familiarity with the general public – you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who could name a single Canadian video game.
That’s a mistake we aim to rectify here at the Toronto Guardian, your resident maple-blooded gaming publication. Setting aside the commercial impact, Canadian-made and Canadian-set games represent some of the great artistic achievements of the era.
In this first article, we’re featuring only games which were made by Canadian developers, excluding those games set in Canada but not actually made here. Amusingly, other countries have occasionally seen fit to feature Canada in their own stories, and many of those games are worth tracking down as well. (We’ll have more to say about that in future.)
We’re also restricting ourselves to twenty-five games for now (our initial run at this ran well over one hundred!), so please don’t @ us if your favourites didn’t make the initial cut.
Outer space, here we come!
1. Mass Effect Trilogy (BioWare, Edmonton, 2007-2012)
The undisputed digital CanCon king, the original Mass Effect trilogy (ignoring, as we must, the abysmal fourth entry) is one of the great video game creations, threading together a Star Trek-like adventure with stakes at once massive – the fate of the galaxy – and personal – the “found family” of your crew, whose fates are largely determined by the choices you make. Key to Mass Effect’s success is its ability to remember players’ decisions, not only across hours or days, but across multiple games, ME2 and ME3 effortlessly picking up on plot threads and choices from literally years earlier. I’ll never forget you, Mordin.
2. Assassin’s Creed II (Ubisoft Montréal, 2009) / Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (Ubisoft Montréal, 2013) [TIE]
The Assassin’s Creed series has had its ups and downs, but few would dispute the excellence of these two landmark entries. ACII was the first of the Europe-set games, featuring lovable rogue Ezio Auditore as he bounded across the rooftops and cupolas of a stunningly realised Renaissance Italy. ACIV, meanwhile, took a major swerve and set sail for the high seas, for what still stands as the best pirate game of all time. Ubisoft Montréal even managed to work in some Canuck connections: ACIV’s game-within-a-game takes place within a fictional studio in a near-future Montreal, with players able to look out over the familiar city skyline.
3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Eidos-Montréal, 2011)
The original Deus Ex games are the archetype for late 90s/early 00s cyberpunk fiction, and when Eidos announced plans for a modern follow-up, gamers were more than a bit skeptical. We shouldn’t have been: Eidos-Montréal (also responsible for another, wildly different action-adventure game on this list) demonstrates its affection for the original while innovating in compelling ways, including a brilliant melée-based stealth system. Also, a significant section of the game takes place in a near-future Montreal; in our headcanon, it’s the same city we’re hanging out in over in Assassin’s Creed.
4. SSX 3 (EA Canada, Burnaby, 2003)
There aren’t nearly enough snowboarding games, but it’s little surprise that it took a British Columbia-based studio to gift us with the very best of them. All the PS2-era SSX games are great, but this third entry, set on a single, beautifully realized mountain (clearly meant to be the Rockies, though technically a fictional range in an unnamed country) is the best, with incredible trails to carve, sweet tricks to pull off, and epic jumps to fly through. Fun fact: EA Canada, now known as EA Vancouver, is Electronic Arts’ oldest internal studio, dating back to 1991.
5. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game (Ubisoft Montréal / Ubisoft Chengdu, 2010)
Now here’s a proper CanCon experience: a Montreal-made game set in a comic book-style Toronto, replete with off-brand Pizza Pizzas, Second Cups, a boss fight at Lee’s Palace, a trio of Casa Loma levels, and so many more easter eggs. Honestly, the best part might just be the way enemies explode in a shower of toonies and loonies. The second best part? The impeccable retro beat-em-up gameplay, soon to be replicated in the recently announced (and delightfully named) sequel, Scott Pilgrim EX.
6. Dragon Age: Origins (BioWare, Edmonton, 2009)
Our predisposition for sci-fi may rate Mass Effect slightly higher, but BioWare’s similarly epic, game-spanning fantasy RPG easily ranks among the best of the 21st century. Consensus remains that the very first game, Origins, is the strongest entry, with brilliant storytelling, meaningful (and difficult) choices, and fantastic, quasi-real-time combat to rival any of BioWare’s other releases (including a certain one from a long time ago, in a galaxy far away, further down this list).
7. The Long Dark (Hinterland Studio, Vancouver, 2014)
It’s 2025, and there are many (too many) survival games, all built around the same basic mechanics of hoarding resources, seeking shelter, and avoiding the combined threats of the elements and wildlife. In our humble opinion, however, few can compete with The Long Dark, which imagines life in the frigid Arctic North after a mysterious Canada-wide blackout. The Story Mode is pretty good, but it’s in the free-roaming Survival Mode, where your one and only goal is to last as long as possible, then immediately try again once the cold/hunger/wolves inevitably get you, that this game soars.
8. Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (Silicon Knights, St. Catharines, 2002)
Pour one out for St. Catharines, Ontario’s Silicon Knights, which burned all too briefly but brightly, releasing three well-received titles in the late-90s/early-00s before imploding spectacularly under a complicated mess of lawsuits, countersuits, cancelled games, and overhyped flops. Strip all that away, however, and you’re left with Eternal Darkness, an astonishing, terrifying, fourth-wall-severing horror adventure which gets as much mileage out of its in-universe scares as the dark pranks it pulls on the player, such as the bugs that appear to crawl out of the screen, or the fake Game Over screens liable to give anyone a heart attack.
9. Cuphead (Studio MHDR, Oakville, 2017)
Indie superhit Cuphead combines the aesthetic of a Silly Symphony with the masocore thrill of Contra, only with far more adorable anthropomorphic vegetables. Its controller-breaking difficulty makes it a tough sell for casual gamers, though thankfully its classic cartoon visuals are fun enough just to sit and watch. Shoutout to the Woodland Cafe-inspired level found only in the downloadable Delicious Last Course.
10. The Simpsons: Hit & Run (Radical Entertainment, Vancouver, 2003)
Arguably the best cartoon-licensed game of all time, Hit & Run absolutely delivers on its straightforward-but-brilliant premise: Grand Theft Auto, except Springfield. From the bevy of cameos and in-jokes, to the hilarious script (by a team of writers borrowed from the show), to the suite of Simpsons-appropriate vehicles – yes, the Canyonero is here, alongside the Mr. Plow plow, and, of course, The Car Built For Homer – it’s an engaging, genuinely funny adventure. Cue la cucaracha!
11. Max Payne 3 (collaboration between Rockstar Toronto, Rockstar Vancouver, and several other studios, 2012)
The first two Max Payne games were decent action titles bolstered immeasurably by slow-mo mechanics ripped straight from The Matrix. For the series’ first next-gen release, Rockstar pulled in nearly all its studios, Toronto and Vancouver at the forefront, to tell a much smarter, more adult, and vastly more refined conspiracy-laden story set in the mean streets of São Paulo. Taking out a room full of gangsters in a single slow-mo dive has never felt – or looked – so cool.
12. Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft Montréal, 2012)
Similar to Max Payne, the Far Cry series (originated by German developer CryTek) took a massive leap forward with its third, Canadian-made entry, set on a beautifully realised archipelago somewhere in the Pacific, overflowing with pirates, drug lords, mystical artefacts, and still one of the best bestiaries in gaming. With everything from leopards to sharks prowling about its open world, it’s the rare non-horror game where you can never be entirely at ease, since you never know when the next creature might leap out and claw/bite you.
13. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (Ubisoft Montréal, 2003)
The original, California-made Prince of Persia titles remain seminal works of early gaming and essential experiences for anyone interested in the history of this fairly young medium. Their 3D follow-ups, beginning with the PS2-era Sands of Time, are even better. Taking what worked best about the side-scrolling originals – namely, the parkour-like movement and combat – and translating it into a three-dimensional space proved nothing less than revolutionary, establishing a template which would go on to be refined in the same team’s Assassin’s Creed (see above), along with basically any other game where you’ve ever clambered across a rooftop.
14. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (EA Black Box, Burnaby, 2002)
It’s been ages since we’ve had a game like Hot Pursuit (specifically, fifteen years, which is how long ago the “rebooted” Hot Pursuit arrived on PS3), but it’s this second entry which remains the standout in this street racers vs. cops series. Essentially the Fast and the Furious of video games, Hot Pursuit 2 sees players racing exotic cars across several themed environments – Mediterranean, Alpine, Tropical, Coastal U.S. – while desperately trying to evade a (seemingly unlimited budgeted) police force.
15. Balatro (LocalThunk, somewhere in Saskatchewan, 2024)
Move over, Daniel Negreanu, Canada has a new poker superstar. This surprise hit indie title, which remixes the card game by infusing it with deck-building and roguelike mechanics, won several game of the year accolades just last year, along with a devoted following for pseudonymous developer LocalThunk. Nobody knows who they are, or what they’ll do next… all we’re pretty sure about is that they’re hiding out somewhere in the prairies.
16. Guardians of the Galaxy (Eidos-Montréal, 2021)
The second-newest entry on this list, and for our money one of the great comic book games, Eidos-Montréal’s excellent cosmic adventure combines a geeky devotion to comic book lore with just enough MCU-adjacent ideas to feel familiar without simply retreading the James Gunn movies. Notably set in its own standalone universe (saving us all from yet another Chris Pratt voice performance), Guardians is action-packed, truly hilarious, and overflowing with easter eggs only the most devoted Marvel zombies will pick up on.
17. Visage (SadSquare Studio, Montreal, 2020)
Genuinely terrifying and even more unpredictable, Visage’s fascinating backstory – it was created by a Montreal-based collective of indie developers, which promptly broke up as soon as the game released – only adds to the mystique of this nigh-flawless horror title. Heavily inspired by (if not outright borrowing from) fabled “lost game” P.T., it remains right at the top of our list of the scariest games of all time.
18. Dead by Daylight (Behaviour Interactive, Montreal, 2016)
At the opposite end of the horror spectrum is Behaviour Interactive’s delightfully macabre Dead by Daylight, an asymmetrical multiplayer game in which one designated killer – increasingly, licensed characters pulled from franchises like Scream and Alien – hunts down a team of hopelessly overwhelmed, under-resourced survivors.
19. NHL 2002 (EA Canada, Burnaby, 2001)
We were tempted to include NHL ’94 on this list, but the truth is that EA’s Burnaby-based studio was solely responsible for the inferior SNES version, upping their game only once they took the reins of the entire franchise in subsequent years. EA Canada’s NHL 2002 might be an unusual pick (most players will tell you 2004 is better), but it has one thing over all others: the complete roster of the Barenaked Ladies, all available as secret characters to add to your custom Toronto Maple Leafs. Take that, NBA Jam!
20. NBA Jam (EA Canada, Burnaby, 2010)
Hear me out: this little-known, long-forgotten reboot may actually be the better NBA Jam. Maintaining the same over-the-top antics as its 16-bit predecessors, NBA Jam 2010 improves with better graphics, slicker gameplay, and a capital-P Perfect roster featuring every NBA mascot (yes, including the Toronto Raptor), Barack Obama, and the Beastie Boys.
21. Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes (Capybara Games, Toronto, 2009)
Capybara Games has easily the most eclectic output of any developer on this list, ranging from dangerously addictive puzzlers like this one (and the more recent Grindstone) through decidedly more esoteric, story-based arthouse titles (see next entry). Back on the Nintendo DS, Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes was your resident Guardian critic’s single most-played game, thanks to its well-paced and ingeniously designed puzzle mechanics, which play like a turn-based RPG powered by Tetris.
22. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (Capybara Games, Toronto, 2011)
One of the very first iOS games we played, the enigmatic, sonically brilliant Superbrothers (the quasi-adaptive soundtrack is composed by Guelph, Ontario’s Jim Guthrie) is part-Zelda, part-Myst, part-Prince of Persia. Arriving as part of a wave of brilliant, esoteric, early-2010s indie puzzle-adventures (see also Journey, Braid, and the next entry), Superbrothers is perhaps best understood as a video game concept album. Come for the lo-fi fantasy world, stay for the lo-fi beats.
23. Fez (Polytron, Montreal/Toronto, 2012)
Phil Fish’s bitter exit from the games industry – pushed, at least in part, by the toxic hordes of “Gamergate” – has by no means dulled the significance of his contributions to modern gaming, not least the awe-inspiring, brain-breakingly challenging puzzle-adventure title Fez. Even today, there are still players collectively trying to solve its most abstruse mysteries.
24. NBA Street Vol. 2 (Co-developed by Burnaby’s EA Canada and Illinois-based NuFX, 2003)
The proud inheritor of the NBA Jam tradition, this PS2-era street hoops game features compulsively addictive short-burst gameplay, a killer roster (the peak Rosters lineup includes designated “superstar” Vince Carter alongside Charles Oakley, Antonio Davis, Keon Clark, and Morris Peterson), and represents one of the last gasps for home multiplayer before online took over.
25. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (BioWare, Vancouver, 2003)
We may think the KOTOR hype is overblown, but there’s no question that this 2003 action-RPG, notably set 4,000 years before the original trilogy (that’s 4,000 BBY for you dorks), stands tall in the annals of not just Star Wars but gaming history overall. Combining choice-based storytelling with gameplay that prefigures the Mass Effects and Dragon Ages to come, it’s a stunning achievement, vastly surpassing the then-current Prequel Trilogy at the time of its release. Also, HK-47 is the best droid ever.
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Looking for more Can-Con recommendations? Check out our list of Canadian novels everyone should read.
For more recent maple-pixelated greatness, check out our review of Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft Québec, 2025)
