I could essentially write a book about Shawn Phase (the man behind temp sound solutions) and his influence on my view of video game music. He’s a divisive figure in the VGM/chiptune community to say the least, but if not for him being a welcoming member of the community when I was just starting out I wouldn’t have met many people and heard many sounds.

Samurai Warrior - Usagi Yojimbo was written by Shawn Phase of TSS back in 2006/07. A cover of a track from the Commodore 64 game of the same name. I believe it was originally an outtake that didn’t make it onto whichever NYPWP had recently been released at the time. He decided to clean up the product, using a meld of samples and heavy guitars that only Temp Sound Solutions can.

As for the song itself, it’s damn catchy if you ask me, but I have a fascination with tracks which just have talking, and not singing. It’s the horribly nerdy writer in me, I’m sorry. The song has a hell of a party feel to it, and the Usagi Yojimbo theme is definitely rocking. Also, I’ve always assumed these samples were from a MAGFest or something, but I could be way off base with that assumption.