Donkey Kong Bananza Devs Share What Game Looked Like on Switch 1

In a recent developer interview, Nintendo revealed a side-by-side shot of Donkey Kong Bananza running on the Switch 1 and how it currently looks. With its release imminent, there's plenty of excitement from Nintendo Switch 2 owners to experience the gameplay of Donkey Kong Bananza, from collecting Banandium Gems to simply destroying the terrain.

While the initial reveal may have been a surprise for fans, especially those expecting to see a new Mario title, Donkey Kong Bananza has apparently been in development for quite a while. In fact, after it was revealed that the Super Mario Odyssey team was the developer of Bananza, it also came out that work actually started as far back as 2017. The revelation puts it in a similar timeframe as some other notable "still in development" games, like Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 6.

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After wrapping Odyssey, the team then shifted gears to release Donkey Kong Bananza for the then Nintendo Switch console. However, after a few years, developers began running into a number of challenges that were difficult to overcome, specifically around how many objects could be in the environment at one time and the destruction powered by voxel technology, which required a lot of system memory. Thanks to a recent Ask the Developer Q&A, fans now know that these limitations ultimately pushed the development team to move things to the Switch 2 in 2021.

Nintendo Shows Donkey Kong Bananza on a Switch 1

Donkey Kong Bananza game director Wataru Tanaka confirmed that moving to the Switch 2 gave developers more memory and processing capacity to work with, ultimately allowing abandoned ideas and mechanics to be restored and achieve the original vision. For additional context, Nintendo also released a side-by-side shot of Donkey Kong Bananza on both systems. While the image quality isn't the greatest, the developers were able to add a substantial amount of detailing and objects to the world, from the grass and fauna to suspenders on DK, as well as impressive lighting effects shining down from the sky.

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It's clear that the hardware change to Switch 2 was ultimately a good one and there seems to be a lot of benefits from the shift. Alongside the more detailed and vibrant worlds, Nintendo was also able to achieve a solid 60 frames per second for a much smoother and "satisfying" experience, as art director Daisuke Watanabe put it. DK himself is also a bit visually different this time around, with Nintendo using the redesign to make him more expressive in Donkey Kong Bananza.