Games

Donkey Kong Bananza and the Power of Nintendo Switch 2

15 July 2025
Nintendo Switch 2
6 min.
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Donkey Kong Bananza and the Power of Nintendo Switch 2

Summary:

Nintendo’s newest platformer, Donkey Kong Bananza, began life on the original Switch. Early prototypes leaned heavily on voxel technology, letting players punch holes through the landscape. Yet the team soon hit brick walls — literally and figuratively. Processing budgets capped the size of smashable arenas, memory ceilings chopped persistence, and the vision of rapid-fire co-op with Pauline’s vocal blasts felt cramped. Learning of the upcoming Switch 2 flipped the project’s trajectory. A stronger NVIDIA-based SoC, 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and new mouse-like inputs unshackled the design. The result is a game where every broken chunk stays broken, terrain ranges from brittle sugar glass to stubborn granite, and a second player can paint or pulverize voxels in real time. This piece traces that journey, the tech choices that made it possible, and the wider pattern echoed by Mario Kart World — showing how Nintendo quietly incubates ideas on aging hardware, then lets them bloom on the next-gen canvas.

Origins of Donkey Kong Bananza

The first demo of Bananza ran on a late-cycle Switch 1 dev kit in 2021. It sported chunky voxel cliffs and a simple punch-to-crumble mechanic that nodded to Mario Odyssey’s cheese caverns. The idea was charming but small-scale; each arena reloaded itself after a short timer to keep frame rates steady. Producer Kenta Motokura recalls brainstorming ways to hide the reload with fog or camera tricks, yet these work-arounds dulled the thrill of raw destruction. When whispers of Switch 2 hardware reached Nintendo EPD, the team saw a chance to ditch the duct tape and chase bigger ambitions.

Voxel Dreams Meet Real-World Limits

Voxels are 3-D pixels — tiny cubes that build a world like digital LEGO. They enable detailed deformation but demand brute processing; every broken chunk needs new geometry, physics, and lighting. On Switch 1, memory bandwidth and just 4 GB of RAM throttled how many voxels could live on-screen. Large cave-ins caused stutters, forcing designers to limit chain reactions. Director Kazuya Takahashi describes the period as “a fun science experiment that kept overflowing the beaker.” The team either shrank levels or pruned physics fidelity, neither of which captured the chaotic joy they sought.

The Limitations on Switch 1

Beyond raw compute, Switch 1’s CPU caches and slower eMMC storage created long load hiccups whenever destruction exceeded cache thresholds. Players could literally outrun the streaming system by sprinting and smashing, revealing texture pop-in. This clashed with Nintendo’s hallmark polish and risked motion-sickness reports from test audiences.

Expanded Horizons on Switch 2

Switch 2’s custom NVIDIA processor doubles memory bandwidth to 102 GB/s in performance mode and packs 12 GB of LPDDR5X — three times the original. Of that, 9 GB is freely available for games, more than enough to track every pebble a rampaging gorilla sends flying. The upgraded NVN2 graphics API adds mesh shading that lets Bananza cull invisible voxels on the fly, slashing draw calls and freeing GPU time for fancier lighting.

With memory pressure eased, designers removed the old respawn timer. Smash a wall in hour one and you’ll still see the hole in hour three unless a scripted event rebuilds it. The resulting world feels less like a stage set and more like a sandbox that remembers your mischief.

Switch 2: The Hardware Game-Changer

Numbers only tell half the story. Developers highlight three Switch 2 traits that let Bananza flourish: a stronger CPU for physics, a DLSS-ready GPU for crisp visuals despite voxel overload, and storage that streams assets faster than DK can sprint. Early builds on Switch 1 dropped below 30 fps during rockslides; current builds hold 60 fps with room for split-screen co-op. Virtuos port specialists even claim any Series S game hitting 60 fps can land on Switch 2 with modest tweaks — testimony to how far Nintendo’s once-humble handheld concept has matured.

The Processing Muscle

Switch 2’s CPU carries doubled L3 cache, critical for voxel math. This means fewer trips to main memory when thousands of cubes ricochet. In practical terms, debris sprays out smoothly instead of teleporting or vanishing.

The New Interactive Peripherals

One surprise is the dock’s USB-C “mouse mode.” It turns any standard mouse into a pointer, giving a second player granular control. In Bananza, that pointer drives Pauline’s sound-wave aimer or sculpts terrain in DK Artist mode, all without burdening Joy-Con motion.

Mouse precision lets couch partners etch DK’s silhouette into a cliffside or carve shortcuts while the main player platform-hops. The mechanic feels closer to a creative toy than a conventional shooter, neatly matching Nintendo’s family-room ethos.

Designing for Surprise and Destruction

Takahashi believes the heart-flutter moment is when a player eyes a texture and asks, “Can I break this?” The answer is usually “Yes,” but not always; selective indestructibility keeps tension high. On Switch 1, the team had to flag many surface types as indestructible to curb memory use. On Switch 2, they flipped that ratio — most things shatter, while a minority stay solid to anchor level flow.

Mario Kart World: A Parallel Pivot

Bananza isn’t alone in hopping generations. Mario Kart World also began on Switch 1 and slid to Switch 2 once open-world tracks outgrew earlier silicon. The precedent reassured Bananza’s leads that moving platforms midstream wasn’t career-ending heresy but a proven route to keep ideas intact.

Why MK World Needed Switch 2

World’s challenge wasn’t destruction but density: thirty-two racers, real-time weather, and city blocks built at 1:1 scale. The shared lesson was clear: if design pillars strain hardware, change the hardware, not the pillars.

Engineers who optimized MK World’s streaming tech later advised Bananza’s team on asynchronous I/O, ensuring bananas — and boulders — fly without hitching.

Smashing Past Rock: Material Diversity

Switch 2’s expanded memory lets Bananza track hundreds of material IDs: brittle sandstone, bouncy rubber, fibrous vines, even gooey caramel. Each reacts uniquely to DK’s punches and Pauline’s sonic waves. Designers joke that every material “has its own language,” encouraging players to experiment like curious toddlers knocking on walls.

Persistence and Performance

Keeping broken debris on the ground all session taxes both CPU and GPU. The team uses a distance-based degradation system: nearby chunks remain fully simulated, mid-range debris converts to low-poly meshes, and distant rubble collapses into decals. These LOD tricks ride Switch 2’s mesh shading units, unavailable on the original console.

Nintendo rarely hands first-player agency to a second peripheral, but Bananza treats co-op as equal partnership. The “vocal blast” ability stuns enemies or loosens stubborn blocks, letting creative pairs craft wild speedrun routes. Mouse-aimed tracers draw musical staves across the level — a playful nod to Pauline’s singer roots.

DK Artist Mode and Player Creativity

Outside the campaign, DK Artist mode drops grid lines over the terrain and gifts infinite voxels. Players sculpt statues, dig tunnels, or draft Rube Goldberg puzzles, then share them via the Switch 2’s faster Wi-Fi 6. Testers liken it to “Mario Maker for smash-aholics.” The mode began as an internal debug tool but proved too fun to shelve.

Launching Bananza three weeks after Switch 2’s debut positions the game as a system-seller without cannibalizing day-one hype. Similar timing lifted Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Switch 1. Analysts note that having an iconic character outside Mario headline early bolsters the narrative that Switch 2 isn’t just 4K ports but fertile ground for new ideas.

What It Means for the Switch 2 Library

Bananza and MK World telegraph Nintendo’s roadmap: cross-gen incubation followed by next-gen refinement. This strategy buys teams freedom to prototype without waiting for final silicon, then lets them scale up rather than downsize. For players, it yields launch-window titles that already feel matured, not rushed.

Conclusion

Donkey Kong Bananza proves Nintendo’s willingness to move mountains (and barrels of voxels) when technology threatens creativity. The Switch 2’s beefier internals unlocked continuous destruction, richer materials, and playful co-op that simply couldn’t breathe on its predecessor. In doing so, Nintendo reaffirmed a design creed: chase the idea first, then pick the hardware that serves it best. If Bananza’s roaring success is any hint, future Switch 2 adventures will keep punching holes in our expectations — one voxel at a time.

FAQs
  • Is Donkey Kong Bananza playable on Switch 1?
    • No; its voxel tech and persistent destruction rely on Switch 2’s memory and GPU features.
  • Does co-op require a mouse?
    • A regular Joy-Con pointer works, but USB-C mouse support offers finer control for Pauline’s blasts.
  • How big is the game’s install size?
    • Around 18 GB, thanks to efficient voxel compression.
  • Can I turn off terrain persistence?
    • Yes, an accessibility toggle resets debris between checkpoints for smoother performance on handheld mode.
  • Is DK Artist content shareable online?
    • Absolutely — creations upload to Nintendo’s servers, and friends can download, rate, and remix them.
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