Donkey Kong Bananza Director Acknowledges Performance Drops: “We Prioritized Fun And Playability”

Donkey Kong Bananza is shaping up to be an excellent outing for DK, but the recent previews did highlight some performance concerns.

The game’s director Kazuya Takahashi has now reportedly acknowledged these issues in a chat with the Spanish outlet Lavanguardia – seemingly confirming these frame rate drops will be in the final build during more destructive moments of the game. For Nintendo, it was instead apparently about prioritising “fun and playability”.

Here’s Takahashi’s full response (via Nintendo Everything):

“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.”

Although there will be some slight drops, as Takahashi mentions, the “overall” experience is still smooth.

In our recent preview of Donkey Kong Bananza, we noted how the experience in this new release felt a bit like a “TOTK situation” where the performance might not be perfect, but you forgive it for its ambition. So, if you’re jumping into DK’s new adventure on release and encounter changes in performance, don’t be surprised.

We’ll deliver our full review for Donkey Kong Bananza next week, so you can find out then how the final build performs.

What are your thoughts about Nintendo prioritising fun and playability? Let us know in the comments.