Switch 2 Developers Discuss Performance Challenges – Insights from Donkey Kong Bananza Director

Nintendo Switch 2 game devs are hitting walls with the new console’s hardware already. Seriously, Kazuya Takahashi, the guy behind Donkey Kong Bananza, admitted in an interview that the game’s performance could, well, dip. Why? Because they went nuts with 3D voxel tech for blowing stuff up in-game. But hey, Takahashi’s all about prioritizing fun over frame rates. I mean, can you blame him?

So, there’s this trailer floating around somewhere (I saw it on YouTube — grabbed my attention for longer than it should’ve). Anyway, this game had a wild ride getting onto the Switch 2. It was supposed to land on the original Switch, but apparently, smashing environments with DK’s fists is super demanding. Throwing barrels is one thing, but breaking walls? Wild.

This game’s got destructible environments like, everywhere. Think sandbox exploration — DK just tears through everything. He’s like, “Oh, a wall? Let’s make it a door!” But yeah, this tech behind the scenes — it demands power. So they pushed it to the Switch 2. More juice, I guess.

A journalist asked Takahashi about frame drops — you know, those annoying pauses just when it’s getting good. He mentioned that they did some fancy stuff like hit stop to highlight impacts. But those voxel explosions? They can slow things down. Takahashi figures most of it runs smooth, even if there’s a little stutter when the world’s literally falling apart around DK.

Nintendo knows there might be hiccups. And in today’s world of instant updates, they’ll probably patch it. Or maybe they’ll crank up some settings — tech’s always got a trick up its sleeve.

A bit of a throwback here: voxel games aren’t new. Got their start in 1992 with Comanche: Maximum Overkill. That game was a beast back in its day, coded in assembly. Talk about old school.

Anyway, Donkey Kong’s new adventure is dropping this Thursday. Just hope your console keeps up, right? If you’re into all this tech drama, there’s a hardware analysis somewhere out there from June. It’s got the nitty-gritty on how Switch 2 stacks up. Go give it a look… if you’ve got the time.