While the OG Nintendo Switch was, and still is, an incredible console on which to play games, it did have some serious drawbacks that can’t be ignored. The internal memory wasn’t the best, the graphics/processing cards weren’t as advanced as they could’ve been, and finally when you played Switch games in handheld mode, it was often viewed as a downgrade, depending on the title you were playing, of course. The question for the Nintendo Switch 2 was whether the new system would be able to handle games better and deliver better performance. Donkey Kong Bananza might be proof that those issues are now a thing of the past.
Nintendo themselves apparently commented on this and revealed that the upcoming title with DK won’t just feature stable performance in handheld mode, but that it’ll feature the following stats:
That’s pretty impressive and something that many gamers will look forward to. Numerous OG Switch games failed to meet the max that the handheld could do at times, not even reaching 720p. Then, there were the framerate issues, where certain games, especially open-world titles, would go from stable to sputtering along due to the Switch not having the power to truly keep things rolling. Here, though, it seems that issue won’t happen again, which makes all the upcoming Switch 2 games all the more impressive and important to try out.
In the case of Donkey Kong Bananza, this could be a series-defining title. For the last several generations, Donkey Kong has followed the “model” that was started back in the SNES. They were great games and good sellers on the systems they were on, but they’ve been “locked” to that style for some time.
However, in this new game, Donkey Kong is sent to an all-new underground world, and he befriends a strange singing rock that will help him as he attempts to find the golden bananas and make his way home. What separates this game from past titles is the destructible environments. DK can pretty much break anything he wants and even use chunks of rock as weapons or surfboards to get around the world!
This opens up all manner of paths for players to try while also encouraging them to let loose with Donkey Kong’s power so they can see what else is waiting for them underneath the surface of each area.
With the game being stable and high-resolution in handheld mode, you can truly play this game on the go without missing much. The game releases on July 17th.
