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Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Switch 2 devs are already bleating about performance issues — Donkey Kong Bananza director reveals challenges
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Nintendo Switch 2 game developers are already bumping up against the constraints imposed by the new console's hardware. In an interview with Spain's La Vanguardia newspaper (machine translation, h/t WinFuture), Donkey Kong Bananza director, Kazuya Takahashi, admitted 'performance may drop,' due to the extravagant use of 3D voxel technology in the game's destructible environment. This is quite an admission from a Nintendo exec behind a flagship first-party title. Takahashi explained that this performance-second decision was given the green light as the team 'prioritized fun and gameplay.' Donkey Kong Bananza journeyed down quite an interesting path to the Switch 2, which could partly explain the performance wrinkles. This smashing new 3D platformer and Switch 2 exclusive was originally destined for the Switch. However, this first 3D Donkey Kong outing since Donkey Kong 64 goes all-in on destructible environments to deliver its gameplay thrills. Destructible environments in this game are extensive, in a kind of sandbox exploration way, where DK can smash his hulking fists through walls, can dig tunnels, and tear off environmental bits and bats for weapon or platforming tool use. It sounds like explosive fun, indeed, but the 3D voxel engine behind the environment is demanding. That's why the game was pulled back to be prepared for the new Switch 2. A La Vanguardia reporter asked Takahashi about their experience of 'frame drops at certain times and levels,' in what is expected to be the shipping version of Donkey Kong Bananza. 'There are several factors to consider. First of all, we intentionally used effects such as hit stop or slow motion to emphasize the impacts. On the other hand, when using voxel technology, there are times when there are big changes and destruction in the scenery,' said the game's director. 'We are aware that in these moments the performance may drop a bit. However, as you say, overall the game can be enjoyed smoothly, and at points where large-scale changes occur, we have prioritized fun and gameplay.' (DeepL, machine translation) Clearly, there may be a few stutters experienced when the game engine begins to reach its boundaries on the Switch 2 hardware. With Nintendo being aware of this potential issue for gamers, and the always-connected nature of today's consoles, we hope optimizations will eventually arrive to iron out any startling wrinkles. Or they could just turn up the DLSS knob. For clues regarding the faltering performance of the Switch 2 in its maiden year, check out our in-depth Switch 2 review and hardware analysis from June. We note that 3D environment voxel engine games were seen on PC as early as 1992, with Comanche: Maximum Overkill. That game's proprietary Voxel Space engine was apparently written entirely in assembly language for the best performance. Nintendo's unruly new 3D platformer is due to launch this Thursday (July 17). 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.
The Verge
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Verge
Nintendo created Donkey Kong's biggest adventure by breaking everything
The creation of Donkey Kong Bananza started with destruction. 'What we were really going for was this gameplay experience that comes from destruction,' Bananza director Kazuya Takahashi says in an interview with The Verge. From that simple premise, Bananza's creators have built an entire game about breaking stuff. Bananza is the second major Switch 2 exclusive from Nintendo, and it's made by the same developers that worked on Super Mario Odyssey, one of the games that came out during the launch window of the original Switch. According to the developers on Bananza, Donkey Kong's appetite for destruction didn't start with his beloved bananas, as one might expect, but with cheese. 'We had used voxel technology in Super Mario Odyssey,' says Bananza producer Kenta Motokura. 'For example, in the luncheon kingdom, you can dig through large piles of cheese, and in the snow kingdom, can plow your way through snow.' Voxels, simply put, are the chunks that make up a digital world. The same way a pixel represents the smallest unit of a flat digital image, a voxel is like the smallest unit of a 3D object, and a technology Nintendo was working with way back in the days of the original Switch. In fact, much like Mario Kart World before it, Bananza was originally planned to be an OG Switch title. 'We had in mind all of these possibilities using voxel technology,' says Motokura. 'But we realized when we learned about Switch 2 that there were even greater possibilities to explore.' Those greater possibilities were twofold: variety in the kinds of materials DK could smash and the ability to make that destruction persist. 'With the Switch 2, we found that we could create lots of different kinds of destructible objects,' says Takahashi. 'This created a very diverse experience of destruction within the game.' In Bananza, there's very little DK can't break, smashing through layers of rocks, mud, snow, thorns, and molten chocolate masquerading as lava. They fracture in different ways and make different sounds when hit. And rather than having a destroyed chunk of material reappear after some time, as some games with destructible environments do, the damage you do sticks. 'What's really important to that experience is that this destruction is continuous,' Takahashi continues. 'That you can destroy something and find something interesting behind it, and then destroy something behind that, and keep on going with new discoveries.' For the developers, another part of the Bananza puzzle was figuring out who Donkey Kong is now. He hasn't been the kind of character to go explorin' since his days of digging up bananas in Donkey Kong 64, 26 years ago. He's also rarely alone, accompanied by any number of Kong sidekicks or attached to whatever Mario and friends are doing at the time. He's not alone in Bananza either, this time palling around with a young Pauline. It makes sense that Pauline would accompany him, since in the deep Donkey Kong lore, Pauline was the woman he (or a younger version of Cranky Kong) kidnapped in the original Donkey Kong arcade game. But DK already has a gallery of sidekicks, and Motokura says that the subject of partners came up early in the development process, with Pauline being one of the potentials. 'Very early on this idea came up that Pauline would be a good choice in this case, but it wasn't implemented right away,' he says. Pauline's addition would only come later as the development team worked out the kinds of powers DK would use. There are animals Donkey Kong can transform into, with each animal giving him a unique power. His base form, which is simply DK himself, allows him to smash through harder materials, like concrete. The zebra form allows him to run over water and other crumbly materials. There are several animal powers DK can use, and the developers asked the music department to create special songs for each transformation. Pauline is a performer. We got a bit of that during the New Donk City performance in Super Mario Odyssey. Once it was established that music would initiate Donkey Kong's transformations, Pauline became a natural fit as a sidekick. 'From that idea,' Motokura says, 'suddenly it was like, 'Okay, well, then Pauline should be the one to sing.'' Pauline's music is just as integral to the game as DK's destruction. Her singing creates musical notes DK can follow to the next objective and it helps her communicate with the creatures they encounter. It even lets her get in on the destructive fun. 'We also have in co-op play the opportunity for a second player to control Pauline's voice blasts that affect enemies and the environment,' Motokura says. 'So a lot of unique gameplay ideas really just fell into place in Donkey Kong Bananza once we had placed Pauline as the accompanying character.' In Bananza, your job is to move fast and break things. It's baked into nearly every aspect of the game, right down to its UI, where selecting an option breaks the corresponding button into little pieces. And though the idea of 'just break stuff' seems like it'd be a little one-note to hang a game on, the developers have created a game in which you gotta break it to make it.
