Numero Uno:

History Repeats Itself - kt2

I'm pretty sure it's apparent that I'm a huge kt2 fan, and History Repeats Itself is a great showcase of his style. Also, it's readily available (and without an extra disc from Soshi Hosoe), so if anyone is curious about kt2 I'd recommend hopping over to VGMWorld and checking this puppy out. Lots of sad piano work with the usual kt2 vibe, which is just what I like. Although half of the album is available on other discs, what's here is gold, regardless of its origin.

Runner up would have to be Heart Session 2. The first Heart Session was real cool, but Cool-Weigh outdid themselves with ten tracks of great happy jazz rock. This CD is perfect to drive around and crank on a sunny day. Although "White Album" is a little too... 70's TV Theme Music for me, the album has a great cohesive feel to it. And everyone should at least hear "Falling Waterdrops", a great somber track that really stands out on the album. Great bluesy feel with some awesome guitar harmonies.

I don't have many big winners in the "H" section, so I'm going to go with my initial instinct of Mitsuda's "Hako no Niwa."

sweet deal.

Ramza

Have to go with the soundtrack to Halo

Wow, look at that. I have exactly zero in my 'H' section...and I can't think of any games that actually start with H off hand that I know the music to....except for the a couple of the Hanjuku Hero games. So I'll go with the SNES Hanjuku Hero as it's some pretty good Sugiyama goodness.

-Joshua

Hiouden SFC, no question there.

I don't have much in my H section either.  I'll give it to Halo primarily for Truth and Reconciliation Suite.

Honorable mention would go to Herzog Zwei or Hako No Hiwa, both of which seem decent enough, but I don't care too much for either one.  The former is not Elemental Master and the latter feels like a Napple Tale wannabe.

Edit: Holy cow, that Hiouden sounds pretty awesome.  I'm glad you mentioned it.  Otherwise I might never have heard it.  The feeling I'm getting is "quality Sakuraba RPG score".

H is kinda dry.

Hako no Niwa
My favorite of Mitsuda's works is creative to no end, with both light and fun tracks that bring smiles and darker tracks that still ooze quality. Forest of Illusion captivates me on every listen.

Runners-up are Hyper Zone, because Earth can never have too much Jun Ishikawa, and Hebereke (Ufouria), because Nobuyuki Hara and Naoki Kodaka are awesome.

I'm glad Halo was mentioned, or else I'd have forgotten about it.

Now I'm going to go weird...

My personal favorite H cd has to be House of The Dead 2, I have trouble describing why, I just do.  Unfortunately I can't say the OSTs to HoD3 and HoD4 inspired the same kind of feeling in me. 

Hiouden wins by default for me since I own zero "H" albums, and it's the only "H" game that I can think of that has a soundtrack that captured my fancy (heh, all this "H game" stuff makes me feel like I'm talking about hentai games). The Hydlide series does deserve a mention, though, just on the basis of the main theme of Hydlide 3/Super Hydlide alone. It's amazing how long that Famicom song goes on before looping.

Bleh...I don't even think I can fill out four 'H' slots...

Tops: Haitenai - Mushihimesama Arranged (Mintjam)
1st RU-Hanjuku Hero VS 3D
2nd RU-Heart Session 2
3rd RU-Hatris Arranged

Hanjuku isn't the next FFVI, but it's filled with enough moderately inspired Uematsu-isms to be enjoyable. This is one I enjoy a lot more than I probably should. I think of Heart Session 2 as a "lost" Tokimeki Memorial Sound Collection, which is a good thing...Probably most similar to Sound Collection 4, now that I listen. There were a couple of tracks that sounded like bad strip music, but "Sunflower Hill", "Pretty Daisy" and the closing track (w/bonus) are all great. Hatris Arranged is an oddball arranged album of puzzle game tunes...My love of 80's synthpop is the only reason this deserves mention, but they did some cool stuff with some fairly plain melodies, so it's an interesting listen. Still, I might give Hiouden a listen and edit accordingly...

Haitenai is generic Mintjam. Doing stuff from Mushihimesama in their style. Which means it's insanely enjoyable, all told. In all seriousness, Mintjam has done far better, not to mention longer (23 minutes...pah) but what's there...

Oh yes, I forgot, there is also Heart of Darkness, composed by Bruce Broughton.

-Joshua

As people have mentioned, there's not a lot to choose from in "H".  I have a total of 3 "H" CDs in my collection:

Heal Ring ~ Rie Sugimoto (Falcom image CD)
Hellfire S (Duo redbook soundtrack where the track timing is off by about two seconds, so the first two seconds of a track are actually the last two seconds of the previous track)
Hudson Game Music Collection '93 (compilation album)

Heal Ring is probably the best Rie Sugimoto album that Falcom produced, but I'm going to have to give this one to Hudson Game Music Collection '93.  Dragon Slayer, Lords of Thunder, and Dungeon Explorer II tracks, all on one CD.  As fine an example of redbook music from the prime age of the Duo as one could find.  If only it was longer...

Weren't there any cool SNK games that started with H
?

I can't think of any that start with h, to be honest...

Don't think this really counts but.... Harvest Moon (SNES) by Chacky

Agreed.

Heart of Darkness
Heroes of Might and Magic

cheers,

-avatar!

I'm going to go with the Hanjuku Hero Vs. 3D Original Soundtrack.  Pretty much everything else I have in "H" are Ayumi CDs which don't count for this poll.

Half-life and Half-life 2 soundtracks - I don't have the album releases but I want them really bad. The coolest FPS soundtracks I've heard! Red Faction's rocks too, though.

Heavy Nova and Heavy Nova 2 (aka Black Hole Assault) - Awesome synth bass-heavy grooves.

Herzog Zwei - Amazing soundtrack to one of the best Genesis games ever made. My favorite "H" soundtrack. Anyone know who composed it?

Herzog Zwei

(and Hiouden SFC =P)

1. Hercules Honor II (Data East album that combines 8 bit originals with arrange verisons)

2. Hanjuku Hero vs. 3D OST

Yeah, H is pretty bare.

damn, that's horrorshow-hardcore
( :

If it counts, I'll go with Kukeiha Club's HOPE album.  If not, I'm gonna say it's a toss up between..

kt2's History Repeats Itself - dark, piano, Silent Hill-esque.  Nuff said   aaand..

Hako no Niwa (soundtrack to the PS2 game "Graffiti Kingdom") - my favorite post-Chrono Cross Mitsuda creation by far.

Other than those three, there's really nothing else in H for me..

-Mike

Heart Session, the To Heart arrangement album has plenty of nice tunes. The instruments are lively performed by a group,Cool-Weigh, who prefers rock/jazz-fusion  "Sebastian" has some of the most spectacular saxophone solo work I've ever heard...

Hercules Honor II ~Titan's Downfall~ has some very melodic, catchy tunes with a great idea of blending original into arranged style.

Must mention some non-released games that should've appeared on some albums...

HAL's Hole In Golf. It's a memorable Super Famicom/Nintendo game, one of the first games we had for our SNES. Limited package in terms of music, but has a somber, menu-music style vibe. A forgotten, earlier showcase of music by Hirokazu Ando.

Hyper Zone. Not a great game, heavily inspired by F-ZERO. HAL's (or Halken's) own Jun Ishikawa who does Kirby soundtracks has a bunch of electronica pieces on here. Again, more memorable music by HAL composers.

Haunted Castle - Basically because of "Cross Your Heart".

Heroes of Might and Magic 2
My favorite from the whole series! The map themes were soothing and often mysterious, the town themes were lively and melodic and the battle themes were percussive and evocative of the right state of mind when facing enemies. There are a couple of less interesting tracks, but as a whole, it tops my "H" list.

Runner-ups:
- Hyper Duel: Hyakutaro Tsukumo at his best, for me, including my favorite track by him, "Black Rain". The remixing for the Saturn version (as it appears on "Technosoft GAME MUSIC COLLECTION VOL.6") is fantastic.

- Hitman (seires): I don't like all of the Hitman music, but some themes are extremely nice to my ears. "Harbor Themes", "H2 Exploration" and "Vegas" are some examples.

Halo, yeah.

Cheesy rock has never been so good as when you're blasting your way out of the complex in The Silent Cartographer.

And that moment in Two Betrayals where you dash to grab the Banshee and On A Pale Horse kicks in... wow!

Heroes of Might and Magic IV (which I thought was the best in the series)...

Or possible Hanjuku Hero 4 as a runner up.

~Andy