Warning : Huge-ass post ahead !!!
OSTs
Senko No Ronde -Carpe Diem-
Can't let go of Yack, he still mesmerizes me everytime I listen to this album. A keeper for sure.
Mushihimesama Futari
Manabu Namiki and Kimihiro Abe did some great work here. Abe's "Sea of Frozen Crystals (Stage 2)" is still my favorite track on the album. Sooo good.
Folk Soul : The Lost Folklore
Boy did this one took me by surprise !! Hosoe and Saso did a full 360 and came back with some impressive intrumental/ambient music. Kawai and Saitoh were no slouches either. OST of '07 for me, hands down.
Karous -Spring Rain-
Another great Drum n' Bass album by Kou Hayashi and Daisuke Nagata. With track titles like "you can't fxxk me (Stage 3)" and "Sex pervert of a Silence (True Last Boss)", it has to be awesome
Akumajo Dracula X Chronicles
Woo !! Konami did an awesome tribute to the original PC Engine game. The majority of the arrangements are spot-on. Hats off to Konami for also throwing in a full PC Engine score as opposed to the Redbook Audio source of the original Dracula X OST.
Natsumero -Summer Melodies-
Oops, another album that most likely passed above everyone's radar. It's another Hentai-ish album by Shinji Hosoe which is full of bubbly synth-pop.
Rockman 7
About time this one gets a CD release, it's been one of my all time favorite Snes games ever since I first played it back in 1995. Lots of quality tracks here.
Rockman 8
Another classic game for me... one of the very first PS1 games I played. Lots of happy memories for me.
Shooting Love 2007
Triangle Service gives us a double helping of soundtracks on one CD. Exzeal is every bit as Trizeal was while Shmups Skill Test tends to be a bit underwhelming at points. But whatever, the Exzeal music is the main attraction here. It's great electronic music that doesn't try to re-invent the genre and has the "old-school" feel.
Trigger Heart Exelica
One of the last official Dreamcast games, THE sported a fun, catchy and old-school sounding soundtrack which reminds me of the good ol' 16-bit days.
Beatmania IIDX 14 Gold
Ever since I dove into Bemani, I knew I was going to grab one of its excellent Beatmania OSTs, and this was the one I picked. One of the best decisions I ever made in a while. All of the themes are very catchy and have something unique to each.
Arkanoid DS
One of the last OSTs for this year, it had many things going for it. One of them was the revival of Zuntata, Taito's Internal Sound Team. Other good reasons are Shinji Hosoe and Ryu's (of Beatmania IIDX fame) contributions. It brought some welcome variety to the score.
R-Type Tactics
I was glad to see Yuki Iwai return here since I did enjoy her work on R-Type Final, and there are a lot of great tracks here.
Resident Evil : Umbrella Chronicles
Normally I wouldn't care about the RE music, but I had to check it out when I saw the names of Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda, whom I loved their work on Killer7 and God Hand. They've managed to use their own style while retaining the horrific feel that RE music is known for.
Record of Agarest War
Here's another surprise for me. An RPG score that has its shares of rock, electronic, orchestral and so on. Highly varied and fairly enjoyable.
Wangan Maximum Tune 3
Yuzo's back with a fun, catchy and groovy trance soundtrack. I thought he couldn't possibly surpass the wonderful Wangan Maximum Tune 2. I was wrong.
The Witcher
One of the rare european OSTs to grab me from the get-go. It feels alot like Gothic 3's score and that's quite a compliment. I call this orchestral well-done.
God of War II
Here's an american powerhouse of a soundtrack if I ever heard one. Big, bold, epic, dramatic, violent... all the qualities that fits with the God of War universe. They've done a terrific job here. I hope the future God of War 3 will up the ante in its aggressiveness.
Crysis
Not quite as powerful as God of War II, but still stirring enough to get my attention and label it as a keeper.
ASTs
Rockman 1~6 20th Anniversary Techno Arrange Ver.
From the moment I learned that Shinji Hosoe was doing the arrangements, I knew I wasn't going to be dissapointed. The result is that I'm giving this album the "Arrange of '07" Award.
Rockman 1~6 20th Anniversary Rock Arrange Ver.
Nowhere near the quality of Iwao's work on Guilty Gear X Heavy Rock Tracks, this album still managed to creep up on my list as many of the arrangements grew on me.
Rockman ZX Advent -ZXA Tunes-
It's basically the ZXA score performed with live synths, drums and guitars. Those are all very good reasons to include it here.
dj Taka -Milestone-
dj Taka's solo album is nothing short of amazing. The first disc has him arranging many of his best themes from various Bemani games. The second disc are other tracks, but arranged by other Bemani artists such as Akira Yamaoka, Sota Fujimori, Osamu Kobuta and TaQ.
Everytime I Bang -X-
This is a short, but excellent Doujin album that focuses on Rockman X 1~5. It's going to remain on my mp3 player for a very long time.
Romancing SaGa -Highspeed-
Another excellent Doujin, this time focusing on Kenji Ito's battle tracks from Romancing SaGa 1~3 and SaGa Frontier. Everyone (especially Hyakutaro Tsukumo) did great to do these great battle tracks justice on a heavy rock style.
Darius Remix
Darius I and II themes arranged by Super Sweep and Basiscape folks. It has nothing but quality arrangements and surpasses the fantastic Darius I & II Arrange album already put out by Zuntata a decade ago.
Best of the Best - A Tribute to Game Music -
No, this isn't a joke. This album deserves it. Aside the craptastic Super Mario Bros. and Chrono Trigger arrangements, the rest of the album is solid. I'm especially fond of the tracks by Inon Zur, Jesper Kyd, Lennie Moore, Will Loconto and David Arkenstone.