Donkey Kong Bananza among Switch 2 games with no DLSS support — reviewers balk at Nintendo's aversion to technology
One of the most notable features of the Nintendo Switch 2 that has many in the gaming community intrigued is its Nvidia DLSS support. Nvidia's AI-powered tech has long been the 800-pound gorilla of upscaling, and it seems especially useful on a console with limited graphics horsepower like the Switch 2.
Despite the fact that DLSS is in the Switch 2 developer's toolkit, however, it's becoming apparent that the technology isn't being universally adopted among devs.
Surprisingly, the holdouts include Nintendo's latest blockbuster, Donkey Kong Bananza. The fine folks at Digital Foundry unpeeled the mystery of missing DLSS support in the title as part of their recent review.
It's also worth pointing out that we reported performance issues earlier this week from Switch 2 developers who are warning users ahead of time to expect some performance drops in Donkey Kong Bananza.
Bananza has been in production for several years, which might be why it's not built to support DLSS. That said, it appears to provide more than adequate graphics using AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR 1) along with Subpixel Morphological Anti-Aliasing (or more simply SMAA), which, as the name suggests, reduces aliasing.
Another big title game that caught our attention in its lack of DLSS support is Mario Kart World. We expected Nintendo's flagship games to be leaders in implementing all of the Switch 2's capabilities, but DLSS is apparently off the table for some. We were disappointed even to learn that Mario Kart World developers failed to properly implement real HDR support.
Time will tell if more developers jumped on the DLSS train or not. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is a highly anticipated upcoming title that might take advantage of Nvidia's DLSS. However, this has yet to be confirmed, so we're not 100% clear what to expect out of this release, either.
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Verge
7 minutes ago
- The Verge
One of Nintendo's most creative Super Nintendo games is now on the Switch
Last night, Nintendo quietly added Mario Paint to the Nintendo Switch Online's catalog of Super Nintendo games. Originally released back in 1992, Mario Paint was a unique SNES title, because although it included a handful of mini games, it was first and foremost a creative tool letting players draw, paint, animate, and even compose music using the 16-bit console. What also set Mario Paint apart from other SNES games was that it didn't rely on the console's standard gamepad. It came bundled with a two-button mouse and a plastic mouse pad that made drawing and navigating the game's on-screen menus and drag-and-drop interface much easier. In 1992, creative apps like Photoshop were still in their relative infancy —- Photoshop didn't even have its useful layers feature yet — and for many kids, Mario Paint was their first exposure to using a digital creative tool (and perhaps even a mouse). Alongside Mario Paint being added to the Switch's SNES catalog, Nintendo has enabled mouse support for the Switch's SNES app, which is compatible with games like Mario's Super Picross and Nobunaga's Ambition. On the original Switch, players can connect a compatible USB mouse to play Mario Paint, while on the Switch 2 the Joy-Con 2 controller's mouse functionality can be used. The company also recently added 19 tracks from Mario Paint to the Nintendo Music mobile app, including the three sample compositions available in the game's music sequencer. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Andrew Liszewski Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Gaming Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All News Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Nintendo
Washington Post
37 minutes ago
- Washington Post
The new ‘Shinobi' embraces the ‘pure craft' of hand-drawn 2D gaming
There's a myth that true immersion into video games requires three dimensions: sidescrollers are good for nostalgia, but the future belongs to photorealistic 3D worlds. But a range of recent games like indie darling 'Hollow Knight' are proving millennia-old, 2D hand-drawn art will endure in video games. Ben Fiquet, a Parisian artist who founded game studio Lizardcube, now contracted by Sega in the Japanese firm's efforts to revive languishing intellectual property from its troves, remains dedicated to the craft. Fiquet is creative director for Sega's new title 'Shinobi: Art of Vengeance,' scheduled for release Aug. 29 on Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox and PC platforms. Fiquet says he created Lizardcube to be a beacon of light for 2D animation in gaming, inspired by award-winning '90s game developer Dave Perry, who created that era's visually stunning 'Earthworm Jim.' The studio's effort is backed up by several critically acclaimed 2D games with Sega's 'Streets of Rage 4' and the Wonder Boy series. 'The inherent power of 2D lies in its straightforward simplicity: the artist's vision brought directly to life,' Fiquet tells The Post. 'There are no tricks or deceptions, just pure craft. While it can be challenging to elicit player emotion, I believe 2D can resonate more deeply, strongly and lastingly.' Sega of America visited The Washington Post newsroom with a PlayStation 5 console and an early copy of 'Shinobi: Art of Vengeance.' The publishers believe the game speaks for itself once in the player's hands, and they're correct. The feel of the game requires the mental agility and focus of a fighting game, with a free-flowing combat system that includes juggling combination attacks in the air, counters and follow-up techniques like rolls and dive kicks. Sega knew Lizardcube was perfect thanks to the studio's success in translating the arcade brawler 'Streets of Rage 4' for the 21st century while retaining its crunchy spirit. Kagasei Shimomura, director of Sega's content production department, is a longtime producer since the company's golden era of the 1990s. As part of the now defunct Sega Ages project, which brought classic titles to modern platforms, he's been a key figure in keeping Sega franchises alive after the turn of the century, when Sega famously exited the video game console business in 2001 to become a publisher and developer for other platforms. The company is most famous for creating Sonic the Hedgehog, but in recent years, its found success in role-playing games focused on Japanese culture with the Like a Dragon series, focused on yakuza life, while the multi-million selling Persona series features young adult fantasy adventures. This success gave Sega newfound confidence in reviving classic franchises from its golden era. 'When launching the Ages project, our first task was to select a series to bring back, and the one that always came to mind was Shinobi,' Shimomura said. In 2023, Sega announced a full-court press of franchise revivals across the company, and Shimomura once again made reviving Shinobi his priority. 'And when it came to bringing that title to life, only one name came to mind: Lizardcube,' he continued. 'I contacted them right away and was surprised to learn that they were also very passionate about the Shinobi series and had hoped to work on a game someday. That settled it for me. Lizardcube was a must-have developer for the new Shinobi title.' The company has tried a dozen times to revive the Shinobi series, including an ambitious dalliance into 3D gaming with a 2003 PlayStation 2 title that was well received but saw limited success. Lizardcube's entry will be the first Shinobi game in 14 years, and its return to the two-dimensional plane is deliberate. 'Sega's revival project is guided by the principle of lore meeting innovation,' Shimomura said. 'This means we don't simply enhance the visuals of past titles, instead we break down the original works to their very core, redefine their inherent appeal and combine them with new elements that will excite today's players.' One of the consistent features passed down from Shinobi's arcade lineage is punishing difficulty. But in a welcome move for anyone hoping for a more relaxing time, Lizardcube's game provides multiple options to make the experience easier, including making the player's iconic white-clad ninja protagonist Joe Musashi hit harder while taking more damage. The game features stunning layered backgrounds depicting futuristic mashups of Japanese traditional and urban environments, including busy cityscapes dotted with digital and street artwork. A robust skill tree can be filled out with many collectibles found through battles and exploration within a surprisingly nonlinear level design that pushes players against every axis of the map. It also includes arcade-like challenges for a more focused experience on platforming and action without any narrative beats. The animation is exceptionally fluid, highlighted by lovely black ink brushstrokes of traditional Japanese paintings. Creating evocative and immersive images with 2D hand-drawn art is a different kind of challenge from 3D games, Fiquet said. 'While not overly complex, it demands skilled artists and a pipeline capable of handling it,' he said. 'Most modern hardware is optimized for rendering intricate 3D assets, but managing thousands of stacked images presents a different challenge.' In many ways 2D renderings are less flexible, he said, 'requiring all decisions to be made well in advance.' 'Shinobi: Art of Vengeance' is shaping up to be a vanguard title for Sega's efforts to galvanize its arcade roots. More broadly, and considering Lizardcube's pedigree and passion, it'll be another brushstroke in 2D art's durability even in the fast-evolving medium of video games.
Forbes
37 minutes ago
- Forbes
How Intel Stock Falls To $10
Intel stock (NASDAQ:INTC) has barely moved this year, up just 2%, as the company continues to struggle with shrinking relevance in its core CPU market and underwhelming progress in its foundry ambitions, despite investing over $50 billion in the space. Revenue has collapsed from $79 billion in 2021 to $53 billion in 2024. While the broader PC market is showing signs of stabilization, Intel's top line is projected to decline again this year - suggesting revenue stagnation could become the norm. Meanwhile, stocks of competitors like AMD and Nvidia are soaring, up 43% and 24% respectively in 2025. Could Intel stock plunge to $10 - half its current value? It may seem extreme, but given the steady erosion of its fundamentals, it's no longer unthinkable. Below, we provide a scenario considering three key metrics, namely revenues, net margins, and price-to-earnings multiple. That said, if you want upside with a smoother ride than an individual stock, consider the High Quality portfolio, which has outperformed the S&P, and clocked >91% returns since inception. SANTA CLARA, CA - JULY 15: An Intel sign is displayed in front of the Intel company headquarters ... More July 15, 2008 in Santa Clara, California. Intel has reported a 25 percent increase in its second quarter earnings with net income of $1.6 billion or 28 cents per share compared to $1.28 billion, or 22 cents per share one year ago. (Photo by) Revenues Could Stagnate Intel's sales have declined considerably of late. Intel revenues declined from $79 billion in 2021 to $53 billion in 2024 as Intel's CPU sales declined due to the cooling off of the PC market post-Covid-19, and also due to market share gains by rival AMD. The rise in mobile devices and increasing demand for AI chips - areas where Intel has a limited presence - have also hurt. While the PC market is recovering with sales projected to grow by low single-digits this year, Intel's revenues don't look like they will stabilize just yet, with consensus estimates projecting a 2% dip in sales this year. There remains a possibility that Intel could see its revenues stagnate in the interim due to a host of factors. While Intel struggles, Will AGI Take Nvidia Stock To $300? Foundry business may not be taking off: There's are increasing signs that Intel's foundry bet isn't taking off the way the company had expected. During its most recent earnings call, Intel appeared to play down hopes of winning major external customers for its 18A process - its most advanced manufacturing tech to date - with the leadership noting that 18A will primarily be used for internal products to begin with. Intel also said in its quarterly filing that it could potentially 'pause or discontinue' its next-generation 14A process if it was unable to win a significant customer. However, the market for foundry services is actually booming. Taiwan's TSMC - the world's largest foundry player - sees its AI-related chips revenue doubling in 2025 and rising at a mid-40% levels over the next five years. Intel, on the other hand, is witnessing very little of the action. CPU market share losses: Intel's CPU business could face further pressure, despite new launches, as the generative AI era could open the doors to more competition as PC makers look to incorporate more smarts into their devices. For instance, both chip-designer ARM and mobile chipset specialist Qualcomm are pushing into the PC space and Microsoft's latest Copilot+ PCs use ARM chips that offer AI features and consume less power. On the server front too, there could be challenges as accelerated computing servers used for generative AI applications typically require just one CPU for eight or more GPUs in AI servers. Moreover, GPU makers such as Nvidia are playing a bigger role in overall server system design, looking to replace dedicated CPUs from the likes of Intel with lower-powered ARM chips instead of Intel's. This could impact Intel's bread-and-butter CPU business. Foundry utilization dilemma: Intel also faces a dilemma of sorts. While competitors like AMD and NVIDIA use TSMC's superior, cutting-edge manufacturing processes, Intel must balance product competitiveness with the financial health of its own costly foundries. Intel has already been sending some chip orders TSMC's way in recent years for crucial components of some of its recent processors. While this outsourcing boosts Intel's product performance, it simultaneously starves its internal manufacturing division of crucial orders needed to cover fixed costs. This forces Intel into a difficult choice: risk using its own possibly less advanced fabs and falling behind rivals in the CPU game, or undermine its internal foundry operations by further embracing TSMC. Intel is clearly on the back foot. While the company is keen to build momentum - employee morale can't be high either. Customers and buyers are more likely to want the 'best' and if the word on the street is that Intel isn't the 'future' - it's less likely to be the choice 'now.' Everything becomes just a tad harder. Intel revenues are projected at about $52 billion for this year per consensus estimates and there is a possibility that sales could remain flat in the coming years, due to the aforementioned factors. Margins Fall Further? Intel's adjusted net margins (net income, or profits after expenses and taxes, calculated as a percent of revenues) have been on a declining trajectory - they fell from levels of over 28% in 2021 (and in years before that) to just about 8.5% in 2023 due to sales declines and considerable losses in the foundry business. The metric fell to negative levels in 2024 as Intel posted losses. While the markets are likely betting that Intel's margins could eventually expand to historical levels as it sets its product and manufacturing roadmap in order, there remains a possibility that margins could remain depressed, remaining at about 5% levels in 2025. Costs associated with the foundry ramp-up could hurt Intel's bottom line. Moreover, Intel's move to outsource production of its Arrow Lake chip to TSMC could potentially reduce the utilization of its own manufacturing facilities. Intel has also not exactly been known for production efficiency. For perspective, in 2023, Intel's foundry business reported an operating loss of $7 billion on sales of $18.9 billion. Separately, higher competition in the CPU space - where new entrants such as Qualcomm and ARM - might also force Intel to resort to some amount of discounting. How This Impacts Intel's Stock Now at the current market price of about $20 per share, Intel trades at about 160x estimated 2025 earnings and about 1.7x consensus revenue. Since Intel was unprofitable in 2024, let's ignore the P/E multiple for this year. In 2023, Intel traded at about 19x. So what explains the difference in Intel's P/E multiple using 2023 and 2025 earnings? It's because investors are betting that things will get better going forward. However, if Intel doesn't deliver in the interim, investor sentiment could go further downhill. If we combine the scenario we detailed above - which assumes no meaningful annual revenue growth between 2025 and 2027 with adjusted net margins falling to about 5% - this means that adjusted net income could fall from about $4.4 billion in 2023 ($1.05 per share) to about $2.5 billion in 2027 ($0.58). Bad times make it easier to imagine worse times - and when that happens, things can spiral causing investors to assign an even lower multiple to Intel re-assessing Intel's recovery path. For example, if Intel's investors assign a multiple of 18x to Intel, following its continued underperformance, this would translate into a stock price of just about $10 per share. What about the time horizon for this negative-return scenario? While our example illustrates this for a 2027 timeline, in practice, it won't make much difference whether it takes two years or four. If the competitive threat plays out, with Intel also continuing to struggle with manufacturing, we could see a meaningful correction in the stock. While you would do well to be careful with INTC stock for now, you could explore the Trefis Reinforced Value (RV) Portfolio, which has outperformed its all-cap stocks benchmark (combination of the S&P 500, S&P mid-cap, and Russell 2000 benchmark indices) to produce strong returns for investors. Why is that? The quarterly rebalanced mix of large-, mid- and small-cap RV Portfolio stocks provided a responsive way to make the most of upbeat market conditions while limiting losses when markets head south, as detailed in RV Portfolio performance metrics.
