Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze Switch vs. Wii U tech analysis

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is nearing its May 4 launch on Switch. Ahead of its release, Digital Foundry is taking a look at the game to see how it stacks up to the Wii U original.

First, let’s talk resolution. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze ran at 720p on Wii U. When docked on Switch, it increases to 1080p. Digital Foundry estimates the portable resolution to be roughly 648p.

As expected, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is almost visually identical on Switch and Wii U. There are, however, some minor changes on Switch. One example is a difference in fur shading and small modifications to the environment.

One major improvement on Switch concerns loading times. Just loading up the game shows a significant improvement with Nintendo’s console. Switch tends to be faster as well when going to the world map for the first time and entering levels.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze still maintains a steady frame rate. No matter if you’re playing docked or portable, it runs at 60 FPS across the board.

We’ve posted the full analysis on Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze from Digital Foundry below.