Nintendo addresses Donkey Kong Bananza’s inconsistent frame rate

Following the release of Mario Kart World alongside the launch of the Switch 2, the next major first-party title coming to Nintendo’s sequel system is Donkey Kong Bananza. Set to arrive in under a week’s time, the team at Nintendo have offered a surprisingly candid response to comments regarding the upcoming title’s somewhat inconsistent framerate.

Nintendo titles are typically rather solid performance-wise, with most first-party offerings running at a smooth 60fps. With the Switch generation in particular however, we saw Nintendo push the hardware as far as it could – leading to some games operating far below their target frame rates.

Despite this, the console maker remained silent on these aforementioned performance issues. As such, it comes as a bit of a surprise that Nintendo has now directly addressed the performance of the upcoming Donkey Kong Bananza, with the game’s director Kazuya Takahashi telling the publication ‘Lavanguardia’ (as translated by NintendoEverything):

“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.”

For the uninitiated, Donkey Kong Bananza’s main mechanic is in its destruction, with much of the game’s platforming and puzzles requiring the player to break various parts of the environment.

Though typically a 60fps experience, early analysis has identified various points in which Bananza’s frame rate is impacted. Fortunately, it appears so far as though the biggest drops occur during non-gameplay moments – meaning it shouldn’t be too much of a noticeable issue.

As mentioned, it is interesting to see Nintendo directly discussing the framerate and performance of a first-party title, especially given how silent they’ve been on the matter in the past.

That said, with the Switch 2 being Nintendo’s latest and greatest system, perhaps the console maker is simply trying to justify why their brand new device is already suffering from some performance issues. It will be interesting to see how other first-party Nintendo games perform as and when they arrive on Switch 2.

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KitGuru says: What do you think of the statement? Are you bothered by the framedrops? Do you notice performance issues more when playing or watching a game? Let us know down below.

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