With Donkey Kong Bananza so close to launch, reviewers have gotten their hands on the game. Spanish media outlet Lavanguardia received an early copy, and an opportunity to interview the game's producer, Kenta Motokura, and its director, Kazuya Takahashi. In the interview, some interesting bits of information are given, such as the fact that Donkey Kong Bananza started development soon after Super Mario Odyssey, and how this game focuses on destruction mechanics in order to differentiate Donkey Kong's style of gameplay from Mario's.

The reviewer also brought up that Bananza has some frame drops, and asked Nintendo about performance. Takahashi's response was that while they are aware of some performance drops during certain moments, the game runs well for the most part, and above all else, Nintendo prioritized fun over performance.

While the game runs smoothly overall, I've noticed some frame drops at certain times and levels while playing the final version. Are you aware of this?

Takahashi: There are several factors to consider. First, we intentionally used effects like hit-stop and slow motion to emphasize impacts. Second, because we use voxel technology, there are times when there are major changes and destruction in the environment. We're aware that performance may drop slightly at these times. However, as you say, overall the game is smooth, and at points where large-scale changes occur, we prioritized fun and playability.

Donkey Kong Bananza will be out July 17, for the Nintendo Switch 2.

Source

 

[Valwinz]

What if the frame drops take the fun out of the experience?

 

[The Catboy]

Brand new system, literally first-party games already lagging.

 

[x65943]

Launch titles with frame drops

Now where have I seen that before...

We're in for another bumpy 8 years

 

[Marc_LFD]

They're not making a Performance Mode and Quality Mode for this game? I'll always take Performance Mode every time.

But, in this case it hopefully won't be that bad.

 

[PatrickD85]

Yeah not great to hear, but I hope it is few and faaaar in between.

 

[Moe87]

It looks like not optimized and develop new game take a time and need to have a good team. Developers normally delay the game release until they iron bugs out.

I do think that they will release a patch to optimize fully.

 

[Deleted member 535703]

Brand new system, literally first-party games already lagging.

Any game developed for a console around launch will tend to have framerate drops. As more optimization techniques get developed and as more games get released, you'll notice games smooth out and speed up. Luigi's Mansion, the launch title for GameCube, had framerate drops. So did Mario 64, the launch for the N64, famously in Dire Dire Docks. The PlayStation 3 was actually so notoriously hard to develop for that later titles didn't even do it right. It's just the life of console development.

That being said, voxel technology is incredible, but it can have performance impact. Nintendo being upfront and saying that there are sparse issues, particularly towards the end of the game, is not only very upfront, but very relieving too. They were honest about where the performance impact is, and that it was only quite sparse. Performance patches will more than likely help smooth out this issue in the future once they figure out more optimization techniques for the customized Tegra.

Like the review said, overall the game is smooth. I'll take that over the unoptimized mess that is modern PC gaming.

 

[x65943]

It looks like not optimized and develop new game take a time and need to have a good team. Developers normally delay the game release until they iron bugs out.

I do think that they will release a patch to optimize fully.

A game that has been in development since Odyssey and still not optimized?

Botw and Totk launched with frame drop issues that were never fixed and those were very high priority games

Rest assured no fix is coming

 

[mathew77]

prioritizes fun over performance

Wow, what a good meme material..

 

[CoolMe]

and at points where large-scale changes occur, we prioritized fun and playability.

what does that even mean? how is performance drops & low fps fun?
that said, it shouldn't go below 30, and if it goes below 20 that's actually unacceptable for a new system that was just released

 

[Moe87]

A game that been in development since Odyssey and still not optimized?

Don't know and they probably very slow or have bad time management.

More of Nintendo problem.

Botw and Totk launched with frame drop issues that were never fixed and those were very high priority games

I don't recall FPS drop with BOTW but noticed a lot in TOTK as they pushed the performance to max console out, so OG Switch don't have much room to push further. Series of patches did help to reduce the FPS issue but not eliminated due to nature of Switch's hardware.

Rest assured no fix is coming

Switch 2 has a lot of room to improve and I do believe that Donkey Kong Bananza started develop on OG Switch before moved to Switch 2.

It has with management issues at Nintendo's end.

 

[Axido]

When I tell my gf that I prioritize fun over performance, she gets mad at me.

 

[The Catboy]

Any game developed for a console around launch will tend to have framerate drops. As more optimization techniques get developed and as more games get released, you'll notice games smooth out and speed up. Luigi's Mansion, the launch title for GameCube, had framerate drops. So did Mario 64, the launch for the N64, famously in Dire Dire Docks. The PlayStation 3 was actually so notoriously hard to develop for that later titles didn't even do it right. It's just the life of console development.

That being said, voxel technology is incredible, but it can have performance impact. Nintendo being upfront and saying that there are sparse issues, particularly towards the end of the game, is not only very upfront, but very relieving too. They were honest about where the performance impact is, and that it was only quite sparse. Performance patches will more than likely help smooth out this issue in the future once they figure out more optimization techniques for the customized Tegra.

Like the review said, overall the game is smooth. I'll take that over the unoptimized mess that is modern PC gaming.

I am on my own personal hate train for Nintendo and just taking every opportunity to take jabs at them. It's completely personal

 

[x65943]

Don't know and they probably very slow or have bad time management.

More of Nintendo problem.


I don't recall FPS drop with BOTW but noticed a lot in TOTK as they pushed the performance to max console out, so OG Switch don't have much room to push further. Series of patches did help to reduce the FPS issue but not eliminated due to nature of Switch's hardware.


Switch 2 has a lot of room to improve and I do believe that Donkey Kong Bananza started develop on OG Switch before moved to Switch 2.

It has with management issues within Nintendo.

Did you ever go into kakariko village in botw? The game gets like 12 fps and it feels like you're playing OoT on a pal TV

 

[aoimatsuri]

Price/2 = FrameRate

 

[Keylogger]

It has framerate drops but don’t worry it’s fun

 

[Moe87]

Did you ever go into kakariko village in botw?

Yes, I notice mild-moderate shutter when I adjust the camera while running around.

but for some reason, it hasn't get my attention about performance issue.

Not awful as MH Wilds on PC when I tried to play at high setting because GeForce 3060 Mobile don't tolerate to that well.

 

[NinStar]

"Prioritizes fun over performance" doesn't even make sense, bad performance directly affects fun (unless you have a really low bar for game quality).

But I see the kind of people they're trying to communicate this to, it is the same braindead people who says stuff like "bUt iT wOrKs pErFeCtTy fInE fOr mE" or "tHeRe iS nO fRaMe dRoPs" for games like Calamity Age, Link's Awakening, Echoes of Wisdom, Scalert/Violet and others.

 

[Marc_LFD]

what does that even mean? how is performance drops & low fps fun?
that said, it shouldn't go below 30, and if it goes below 20 that's actually unacceptable for a new system that was just released

The hell, even 30fps shouldn't be acceptable these days. Lowest it should go is 45~50fps, from 60fps.