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

Donkey Kong Bananza is developing into an outstanding venture for DK, but the latest previews have pointed out some performance issues.

The game’s director, Kazuya Takahashi, has now reportedly acknowledged these challenges in a conversation with the Spanish publication Lavanguardia – seemingly affirming that these frame rate drops will be present in the final version during more chaotic moments of the game. For Nintendo, it was apparently more about emphasizing “enjoyment and gameplay.”

Here is Takahashi’s complete response (via Nintendo Everything):

“There are multiple factors to evaluate. Firstly, we purposely implemented effects like hit-stop and slow motion to highlight impacts. Secondly, due to our use of voxel technology, there are occasions when significant transformations and damage occur in the environment. We’re aware that performance might dip slightly during these instances. However, as you indicated, overall, the game remains fluid, and during moments of large-scale changes, we prioritized enjoyment and gameplay.”

Even with some minor drops, as Takahashi notes, the “overall” experience continues to be fluid.

In our recent preview of Donkey Kong Bananza, we remarked how the experience in this upcoming release resembled a “TOTK situation,” where performance might not be flawless, yet you overlook it due to its aspirations. So, if you’re diving into DK’s fresh adventure upon release and notice performance fluctuations, don’t be caught off guard.

We’ll present our complete review for Donkey Kong Bananza next week, so you can find out then how the final version performs.

What are your opinions regarding Nintendo’s focus on enjoyment and gameplay? Share with us in the comments.