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Nintendo started work on Donkey Kong Bananza as a Switch 1 title but transitioned to Switch 2, not just because the new console enabled "visual richness" and abandoned ideas, but also because playing in 30 FPS "couldn't fully capture" the fun and feel of this new DK. At last, it's time for Nintendo to join us in the era of 60 FPS.
Several Bananza designers are featured in a new series of "Ask the Developer" interviews on Nintendo's website. In part two, producer Kenta Motokura, art director Daisuke Watanabe, and game director Wataru Tanaka discuss the factors that pushed Nintendo to move the game to Switch 2 – a process that started around 2021, whereas development began not long after the conclusion of Super Mario Odyssey. A theme stands out among these factors: 60 FPS is king.
"One of the most obvious improvements was that we could place far more objects in the environment than before," Watanabe says of the Switch 2 upgrade. "Being able to place more objects in the terrain didn't just enhance the game's visual richness. More importantly, it increased the amount of things players could destroy, which amplified the exhilaration of being able to demolish anything and everything. That went hand in hand with the game’s core concept of destruction. It convinced us that this game would be even more fun if we developed it for Switch 2."
Tanaka notes how memory-hungry Bananza's voxel-based technology can be. He uses the example of doubling the size of a 1x1 pixel shape vs a 1x1 voxel shape. To compress things, you can think of pixels as being 2D and voxels as 3D. Doubling those pixels gets you a 2x2 shape. But with voxels, which have depth as well as height and width, it's 2x2x2, or "eight times the data."
"With the move to Switch 2, we gained not only more memory but also greater processing capacity," Tanaka says. "That gave us the freedom to incorporate gameplay ideas we'd previously abandoned because they were too demanding. When we got down to trying it, we discovered that not only could it handle the heavy processing requirements, but it also ran at 60 fps (10). Things we'd given up on, like explosions flinging large objects or causing them to collapse, were now possible."
This echoes Nintendo's previous comments on the generational leap up to Switch 2. Producer Kouchi Kawamoto said, "There were times when we wished the Switch system's processor was faster," acknowledging the limitations it put not just on Nintendo developers but also on third-party studios.
With Donkey Kong Bananza capable of 60 FPS on Switch 2, "the core gameplay of smashing got way more satisfying," Watanabe says.
"The physics of smashing involve lots of things all happening at once," he continues. "Donkey Kong throws a punch, the terrain and objects break apart, and visual effects show debris flying outward. All of that is packed into a single moment. At 30 fps, we couldn't fully capture everything that happens in that instant. But at 60 fps, we saw that sense of destruction coming through much more clearly. We thought to ourselves, 'Now we've got something seriously satisfying!' Not only did Switch 2 enable the game to run well, it unlocked the game’s full potential – no, it made the game possible."
