This one's going to be a little tough for me, considering that I've been limiting myself to one winner and one runner-up per week. Hmm...

Gungrave O.S.T.

I'm going to with Gungrave as my favorite "G" soundtrack because even after several years it still has some freshness nestled in some really special places. Imahori tears up a bunch of different "styles" on this album while inventing some of his own. Highlights for me include the bizarre "No smoking palais" and "Are you zapped?", but I also really dig the horns and funk of "cerberuses". It's a trippy album to listen to front-to-back, and it's awesome all the way through. I really can't compare Gungrave to any other soundtrack that I own because it's so different... but either way, it comes highly recommended for those of you who are looking for something fresh and funky.

For runner-up, I'm going to go with Guilty Gear XX #Reload Korean Version OST. It was between this and the God Tracks God Hand OST, but I have way too much time and all out rockin' invested in GGXX#RKV to ignore its metal awesomeness. To me, it's the best GG OST by far, doing away with Ishiwatari's tired faux butt rock and building a new sound for the series. Unfortunately, N.EX.T hasn't done another GG game since, but I'd love for them to. The sound is more refined than the other GG albums, and the dudes from N.EX.T are insanely talented. Great songs, great riffs, and a great soundtrack.

WHAT? Totally obvious answer here:

Gyakuten Saiban Orchestra Album!

Need I explain more? No.

Runner-up goes to Genso Suikoden II Orrizonte cuz I always thought it was quite awesome.

Ramza

Let's see what we have:

-Ghost Master
-Gradius Arcade Soundtrack
-Grandia OST1
-Grandia OST2
-Grandia II Deus
-Grandia II Povo
-Grandia III
-Grandia: Vent
-Grandia Xtreme
-Guilty Gear
-Guilty Gear Isuka
-Guilty Gear X

From these, I'd have to go with Grandia I OST1, I think.

-Joshua

Another challenging choice for "G". There's, of course, way too many to pick just one!

The best "G" category would have to go to Genso Suikoden III Music Collection.

Such a wonderful arrangement album by Shusei Murai and his masterful orchestra (Bosque Aroma) that totally eclipses and radiates the somewhat flat original material. "Stupid Ducks" is a fine opener, blending celtic and jazz, and "Theme of Coroc" is an excellent seemingly endlessly playable track. Each track conveys different moods and takes on [the versatility of jazz] the original material; "Town Bridge" has a middle-eastern vibe, "Departure" with some excellent fusion guitar vs. sax, "Large Hollow" having a fine showcase of Latin brass instrumentals and a heavenly alto, soprano, tenor sax battle!

As far as original game music goes, absolute victory for Guardian Heroes. The music is unmatched OFF THE WALL. One of those true albums that gets me pumped, and has some wonderful guitar and sax solos within Irie's usual wild keyboarding.

A close second; Ganbare Goemon ~Neo Momoyama-Bakufu no Odori~ Original Game Soundtrack some fun-pop-tasty takes on traditional Japanese music that have been near and dear to me for many years. It's a shame King Records shafted the proceeding "Deroderoduchu Obake Tenkomori" with abridged and left out tracks.

Ones that deserve to be noted, Götzendiener Original Game Music with some outstanding acoustic guitar arrangements like "Graveyard Labyrinth" with feelings so unreplicated in the game music industry.

Genso Suikoden IV Music Collection ~Another World~ follows in the wake of GSIII Music Collection, this time with more exotic jazz inspirations, not quite as solid as GSIII (some duds on IV like "Town On Canal" and for some reason, it felt the need make a reprisal track). There's also two very powerful and amazing vocals (especially Lalacle's Theme) done in Portugese and Italian! The Genso Suikoden Piano Collection(s) are splendid as well, but might have to appeal to the hardcores on some more somber, boring tracks.

Game Music Festival ~Super Live '92~ Live instruments! A 9 and a half minute Street Fighter II medley! The best version of Metal Black's "Born to be free". So few live game albums that have promoted unity of the game music industry's bands like GMF '92. They should've done more of these and/or released more material.

Some good shit in da G.
Favorite:

Gungage
Yamane shows her first signs of  (superfast) deteroration, but Sota makes one of the finest debuts ever. 'Burning Combat', 'Your Absolute Revolution' and 'Flashback Memory', this album is worth it for these three killer tracks alone. One of my alltime favorite game soundtracks. Funny though how he (like Yamane after NitM) never really reached the heights of this album again. I mean, Elder Gate and Shincontra had only a few great tracks, the rest of his tracks was just decent. But after that he turned into 100% trance-Sota doing only little contributions for Konami. And now...he's gone I think. Too bad.

Nominators:

Gate of Thunder: A classic. What else to say? Well, the ending theme is a favorite. Best of T's Music.

Gungrave:  I personally find a little too many uninteresting tracks here, especially since I in general don't really like Imahori's fetish of horns. But like Gungage the stuff that's good is gooood. No smoking palais is some badass techno, Imahori-style.

Gradius Perfect Selection. By such a long shot it's out of the park. A low-bitrate MP3 version of this was I think my first introduction to the world of professional rearrangements, and I hunted around for a better quality version of it for a long while before I chanced upon the idea of trying to look for the album itself on US ebay (a regular attempt to find it on UK ebay had proved fruitless). Well, there it was straight away. I snapped it up and started on the slippery slope of VGM original collecting. I'm still undecided as to whether this was a good or bad thing...

As for the album itself - it's simply magnificent. From the grandeur of King of Kings, through the upbeat driving excitement of Sand Storm, Crystal World and Cosmo Plant (which is a perfect shmup tune) to the beautiful string-led Farewell. Challenger is straight out of the funkiest disco album you ever heard, and Try To Star... Ah hell... Every single tune is a bona-fide classic.

In fact, just having a quick listen as I type this totally reinforces my love for this album.

He's still kicking around somewhat. He had three tunes on the recently released IIDX 13 soundtrack... but they're all techno/electronica, and I know how you feel about that stuff, man.

Outside of "S", "G" is probably my toughest one:

Winner: Guilty Gear Original Sound Collection
1st: Genso Suikoden 1 OST
2nd: Gitarooman OST
3rd: Gran Turismo 2 OST

Along with Final Fantasy VI, Genso Suikoden 1's OST represents one of the best and most complete RPG soundtrack packages. There isn't one track I normally skip on this one and it's sound quality is through the roof (both factors that keep it well ahead of Suikoden 2 and 5's OST's). Angie's review lead me to Gitarooman's OST, which is something I find myself revisiting each individual track a lot (favorites: "Tainted Lovers", "Flyin' To Your Heart", "Twisted Reality" and "Resurrection") I really wish they would turn this into some kind of franchise...Another couple discs of this stuff would be great. Gran Turismo 2 is one of my favorite OST's from recent years, featuring Masahiro Ando's classic "Moon Over the Castle" theme, plus a number of rock and jazz-fusion tracks that I've only heard better from in a few places.

Hon. Mentions go to Grandia 1 and 2 (both RPG masterpieces, IMO, despite the excess filler on G1), Gradius Perfect Selection 1 (see Sabreman's post), Game Music Graffiti (many classic Nintendo themes are covered over two CD's...Even harder to find than the Phantasy Star Collections. Probably would've been a no-brainer to reprint during the Famicom retro craze a few years ago), Grid Seeker: Dictator of Justice (Zuntata can rock like no one's business when they need to) and Gurumin OST (Falcom's playful/electronica side out in full force...Amazing it hasn't been released under the FMS label). Way too many good "G"'s.

The Guilty Gear franchise basically deserves its' own ranking (for those curious: 1) GG1 OST 2) GGX: Heavy Rock Tracks 3) GGXX#R Korean 4) Guilty Gear Isuka 5) GGXX OST...but the rankings are literally seperated by fractions of points in the thousandths) because it's what introduced me to rock/heavy metal and it's something that has really expanded my tastes towards the genre(s) as a whole.

I pick the original GG1 OST as my favorite for several reasons: It's been successful in setting the bar for a lot of the rock I listen to for close to 8 years now and I've yet to grow tired of it. Nothing in the franchise matches "Shout and Burn" or the quality ending themes present here (though the Korean themes come close) And it's only been recently that I discovered how good the performances were on this (as compared to the guys who did X/XX), mostly due to some better headphones/speakers. Plenty of stuff I never recognized and appreciated before.

Oh and yeah...There's the little fact I've simply listened to GGX: Heavy Rock Tracks a little TOO much over the past five years. Definitely a burnout factor there. Two/Three years ago, I'd have picked that with zero hesitation. For some reason, GG1's OST has aged far better. I'm not even going to question why...I'm just going to enjoy it while its' stock appears to be up.

I'm without my music right now, since my computer's in the shop and none of the lab computers have FireWire ports for me to plug my music drive into, so I'm going to have to wing this one.

The Guardian Legend
Favoritest NES soundtrack, belonging to my favoritest shmup. I absolutely love all of the melodies present (and there are a lot of them), and can loop many of the individual tracks for ages.

Runners-up
Starting with some guitar soundtracks (interesting how a bunch of these start with the letter G, like the instrument =O ): Guilty Gear XX #Reload Korean Version is delectable (GGXX: Sound Alive is pretty good too), Gitarooman is ingenious (The Legendary Theme (Album Version) gets me every time), and Ginga Fukei Densetsu: Sapphire is classic T's Music rockin'.

Game Music Graffiti, as GoldfishX mentioned, is a pretty awesome arrange set; there are arrangements of the two R.O.B. games for Chrissake. Gyakuten Saiban Orchestra Album ~GYAKUTEN MEETS ORCHESTRA~ is awesome (the OSTs themselves aren't too shabby either); I have much, much love for the arranged version of Oo-edo Soldier Tonosaman.

And since Akihiko Mori always needs more love, let's throw in Gokinjo Bouken Tai. The man could throw out awesome battle themes; Battle is among my favorites of the SNES (pure jazz goodness). I can't pick out favorites right now because it's been a while since I've listened to it in full, but I remember Masked Soccer Boy J, Piknik, and Nanako-Stage Ver.- as all being quality. Everyone should download this SPC set.

Well, it look like my favorites have already been mentioned by Goldfish X:

Gradius Perfect Selection - probably Konami's greatest Perfect Selection album.  It's one of those rare VGM albums that works great as a whole.  It's not so much a collection of great individual tracks as it is a total aural experience; listening to it from beginning to end is like entering into a sweet electronic trance.  If only the second volume had lived up to the promise of the first.

Game Music Graffiti - One of Nintendo's finest arranged albums.  Two discs of classic Nintendo fare, with zero filler.  And it puts me in a good mood every time I listen to it.  Every time.

Guilty Gear X Heavy Rock Tracks - After the shameful disappointment that was the Guilty Gear X arcade soundtrack, Daisuke Ishiwatari completely redeemed himself here.  This is the album I think of when I think of VGM rock.  The first Guilty Gear was great, but the sound quality is a little muddled.  Guilty Gear XX is terrific, but it starts to feel like a bit of a rehash album.  GGX introduced Blue Water, Blue Sky; Still in the Dark; Awe of She; and Fatal Duel, while also refining such classics as Holy Orders and Writhe in Pain.  And the remake of Momentary Life is simply astounding.  It strikes the perfect balance everywhere.

Some great gems in the "G" pile:

Ganbare Goemon: Deroderodochu Obake Tenkomori Original Game Soundtrack

If ever a soundtrack needed to be expanded to multiple discs, this is it baby.  One disc just doesn't do it justice.

Giftpia Title Music + Nanashi-FM

One of the most offbeat OSTs you'll ever hear, and worth every minute of it.

Other fine "G" selections:

-Gradius V Soundtracks
-Grandia II Music Selections
-Growlanser Original Soundtrack
-Gungage Original Soundtrack
-Grandia Arrange Version: Vent

Yeah, that's why I said the upgraded speakers made a world of difference with it. I believe it had something to do with PS1 compression, as I have the same issue with Genso Suikoden 1. I have to try running them through a realizer feature to make the background material more audible.

And I haven't been able to crack Gradius Perfect Selection 2 either...Bad enough I don't recognize anything from it

One huge disservice Konami didn't do for Sota Fujimori is release a Neo Contra album. He does need more employment beyond Beatmania selects and gap fill-ins for Rumble Roses.

It's a tough choice, but I choose the original Grandia as having my favorite G soundtrack.  Or Grandia OST I if I have to choose a particular album. (Grandia OST II is underrated though; there might be some filler, but it's interesting filler that only enhanced the game experience)  Unlike the other Grandia games, the original Grandia has truly inspired and engaging music.  I feel like playing the original Grandia is the closest thing to being able to play through a Miyazaki flick.  The music has a lot to do with that.  It has the charm of Lunar but with a more mature and rhythmic edge.  Iwadare's masterpiece.  Full of energy and great thematic material.

My honorable mention goes to the original Genso Suikoden.  It's actually a bit more consistent than Grandia but perhaps not quite as affecting on an emotional level.  It wasn't easy deciding which one to put on top here.  Either way, it still has one of the best game OSTs out there.  It seems like a mix of Star Wars and various ethnic music.  The result is a unique soundtrack that remains the best of the Suikoden soundtracks by a considerable margin and a shining example of what a great RPG soundtrack is supposed to be like.

Ack, I almost forgot about Gate of Thunder.  It has probably my favorite shooter soundtrack and it deserves a mention here.  It's totally rock'n but not too heavy like Lords of Thunder is.  I guess Gate sounds more like 80's rock or someting.  Anyways, it has just the right amount of gamey and outer spacey stuff mixed in to suit my tastes.  This one gets me pumped up like few soundtracks do.

G-Darius - probably my favorite Darius soundtrack

Galactic Storm ~The Eye's Memory~ - not sure who arranged it, but it's signature OGR

Garou Densetsu (aka Fatal Fury) 1 & 2 - catchy and rocking themes

Gate of Thunder - like everyone else said

Ghost in the Shell MEGATECH BODY.Cd.,LTD. - pumping techno soundtrack by various artists

GHOST IN THE SHELL : STAND ALONE COMPLEX ~Music Archive Sound Files~ - in the same vein as "MEGATECH", but composed by the genius Nobuyoshi Sano

God Hand "God Tracks" Soundtrack CD - another masterpiece by Masafumi Takada. One of the best soundtracks of '06!

GRAN TURISMO 2 EXTENDED SCORE ~GROOVE~ - Exquisitely crafted album along the lines of the Ridge Racer Type 4 and Enthusia ~Professional Racing~ soundtracks.

Great Mahou Daisakusen (aka Dimahoo) Original Soundtrack - I just discovered this game recently in MAME and had to have the soundtrack. Awesome soundtrack to one of the coolest arcade shooters I've ever played.

Gunhed (aka Blazing Lazers)  - I mentioned this one in the "B" list but it's worth mentioning again.

Has to be Guilty Gear XX #Reload Korean.  Guilty Gear music is amazing, and N.EX.T is even more amazing, so mashing the two together resulted in an explosion of the rawk.

Hell yeah, brotha!!!

I think Perfect Selection Gradius Part 2 had some more interesting arrangements and styles. Most of the music was also arranged based on very short tracks from Gofer no Yabou like "Dance of Middle Easterners" and the amazing "Fortress Planet Theme" with Masato Honda guest starring on Sax. There's a lot of interesting arranges here, make particular note of "Giant Statue Planet Theme" and it's heartbeat-style synth percussion. Part 2 doesn't really need understanding of source material to shine.

Goblins 3
Jazzy, moody, crazy and most of all, catchy AdLib soundtrack by Charles Callet. Part of my love for it is from nostalgia, but the music sure has its qualities, with all those quirky notes and happy feelings. "Goblin Spirit" is my favorite track!

Some other "G" soundtracks that I enjoy much are Grim Fandango, GEX and G-Police.

Hey man, I happen to like Ishiwatari's "butt rock".

But as for the Korean soundtrack, I love it to death, but I own the bonus one that came with the limited edition Korean game (the Korean dub is really good!) and the volume on the tracks is way to low.  I had to rip mine, boost the volume, the re-encode them.  Is the mass market, Japanese cd the same way?

And as for my favorite, Gensou Suikoden.  As much as I love the series' music, I feel that the ost to the first game has yet to be topped.  GSII came darn close, but III dropped the ball (although the op theme and intro fmv brings tears to my eyes) IV was largely atmospheric, and V kinda continued that trend, though I like more of its' music, that IV or III.  Gensou Suikoden's ost went from sweeping to stirring and then back again, I just can't say enough good things about it.

For my runner up, Guilty Gear X: Heavy Rock Tracks  To Zane it may be "butt rock" but I love this ost far and away more than any of the othe GG osts, though the Korean ost comes in a close third.  i'm not quite sure if it isn't just because that I fell in love with the Dreamcast game that I like this cd so much, but Ishiwatari just nailed it on this one.  My favorite track is "A Solitude That Asks Nothing In Return", followed closely by "Awe of She" and "Still In The Dark".  The cd as a whole just puts me in the mood to play 'till my thumbs bleed.

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