Technologies

‘Donkey Kong Bananza’ Gives Our Favorite Ape His Big Moment

Available exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2, ‘Donkey Kong Bananza’ offers stunning graphics and hours of punch-throwing fun.

In 1981’s Donkey Kong, the «jumpman» characters chased a humongous gorilla through a construction site to rescue a damsel in distress. The video game is now best remembered as the introduction of jumping and the introduction of a lovable plumber named Mario, who would go on to make billions of dollars in the Super Mario Bros franchise.

Despite Donkey Kong being a popular playable character in games like Mario Party, Super Smash Bros., and Mario Kart, the villain-turned-goofy ape has arguably never quite gotten his own time to shine. The new, explosively popular Nintendo Switch 2 is changing that: DK is the headliner of Donkey Kong Bananza, which goes on sale July 17 and is only available on the Switch 2. (You can pre-order it now at Best Buy.)

CNET’s Scott Stein says Bananza is the Switch 2’s «new must-get game» – «full of its own styles and surprises that are utterly fresh.»

Explore an enormous world fueled by the Switch 2’s graphics

Donkey Kong can run, jump, and climb through a world of vibrant colors and creatures that are impressively realized in 4K on the Nintendo Switch 2. The character himself gets an upgrade with expressive eyes and textured hair. And he’ll sound familiar to anyone who watched The Super Mario Bros. Movie, as he’s once again voiced by Seth Rogen.

Since Banaza was made by the minds behind Super Mario Odyssey, an immensely enjoyable Mario title that revealed we were all hungry to see a T-Rex with a mustache and a tiny red cap, exploring the map is vital to the gameplay. You can wander endlessly through levels, collecting Banandium gems and competing in ancient ruin challenges. (If you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of banana references in this game). For gamers overwhelmed by too many options and not enough directions, maps and arrows can guide you and bypass some of the wanderlust.

Donkey Kong likes punching, and so do we

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Donkey Kong game without showcasing his mighty fists. Donkey Kong can punch in any direction and destroy almost anything, unearthing treasures and paths hidden under the surface of walls and the ground. Make no mistake: this is where the fun is. It’s like a classic Nintendo brawling game. Or a room that you have the green light to demolish before renovating.

The punching isn’t just pure chaos. Donkey Kong can dig tunnels to get somewhere or find hidden bananas, which means hours of gameplay for the obsessive completists among us. You also often have to use debris to solve a puzzle, throw at a bad guy, or as a tool to get through the level. It’s a high level of game design that uses «voxels» – which are kind of like big pixels, so that the scattering of debris feels real in Donkey Kong’s world.

Play as a damsel no longer in distress

Pauline, the original damsel in distress in the 1981 game, returned in Odyssey as the mayor of New Donk City. In Bananza, she’s in her teens and sits on Donkey Kong’s shoulder as his sidekick. (Apologies to the much-maligned character Diddy Kong, you were a real one.) Pauline is a singer whose melodious voice can transform Donkey Kong into a more powerful ape. Read: he can now punch through more things. He can also transform into a muscular speedy zebra or a beefy flying ostrich.

The game also features a nifty two-player co-op mode, so a friend can use the Switch 2 Joy-Con’s mouse-like pointer feature to control Pauline. She shoots words at enemies (yes, actual words like Wow! Yeah! Ha!). The targeting is reminiscent of classic shooters like GoldenEye, a fun bonus for a Donkey Kong game. But it also underscores how Donkey Kong lives in a world with real people – and gives Bananza a surprisingly human touch.

Pre-order Donkey Kong Bananza now at Best Buy

Donkey Kong Bananza retails for $70 and releases on July 17. Preorder it today at Best Buy and get ready to throw some punches.

Technologies

TMR vs. Hall Effect Controllers: Battle of the Magnetic Sensing Tech

The magic of magnets tucked into your joysticks can put an end to drift. But which technology is superior?

Competitive gamers look for every advantage they can get, and that drive has spawned some of the zaniest gaming peripherals under the sun. There are plenty of hardware components that actually offer meaningful edges when implemented properly. Hall effect and TMR (tunnel magnetoresistance or tunneling magnetoresistance) sensors are two such technologies. Hall effect sensors have found their way into a wide variety of devices, including keyboards and gaming controllers, including some of our favorites like the GameSir Super Nova.

More recently, TMR sensors have started to appear in these devices as well. Is it a better technology for gaming? With multiple options vying for your lunch money, it’s worth understanding the differences to decide which is more worthy of living inside your next game controller or keyboard.

How Hall effect joysticks work

We’ve previously broken down the difference between Hall effect tech and traditional potentiometers in controller joysticks, but here’s a quick rundown on how Hall effect sensors work. A Hall effect joystick moves a magnet over a sensor circuit, and the magnetic field affects the circuit’s voltage. The sensor in the circuit measures these voltage shifts and maps them to controller inputs. Element14 has a lovely visual explanation of this effect here.

The advantage this tech has over potentiometer-based joysticks used in controllers for decades is that the magnet and sensor don’t need to make physical contact. There’s no rubbing action to slowly wear away and degrade the sensor. So, in theory, Hall effect joysticks should remain accurate for the long haul.

How TMR joysticks work

While TMR works differently, it’s a similar concept to Hall effect devices. When you move a TMR joystick, it moves a magnet in the vicinity of the sensor. So far, it’s the same, right? Except with TMR, this shifting magnetic field changes the resistance in the sensor instead of the voltage.

There’s a useful demonstration of a sensor in action here. Just like Hall effect joysticks, TMR joysticks don’t rely on physical contact to register inputs and therefore won’t suffer the wear and drift that affects potentiometer-based joysticks.

Which is better, Hall effect or TMR?

There’s no hard and fast answer to which technology is better. After all, the actual implementation of the technology and the hardware it’s built into can be just as important, if not more so. Both technologies can provide accurate sensing, and neither requires physical contact with the sensing chip, so both can be used for precise controls that won’t encounter stick drift. That said, there are some potential advantages to TMR.

According to Coto Technology, who, in fairness, make TMR sensors, they can be more sensitive, allowing for either greater precision or the use of smaller magnets. Since the Hall effect is subtler, it relies on amplification and ultimately requires extra power. While power requirements vary from sensor to sensor, GameSir claims its TMR joysticks use about one-tenth the power of mainstream Hall effect joysticks. Cherry is another brand highlighting the lower power consumption of TMR sensors, albeit in the brand’s keyboard switches.

The greater precision is an opportunity for TMR joysticks to come out ahead, but that will depend more on the controller itself than the technology. Strange response curves, a big dead zone (which shouldn’t be needed), or low polling rates could prevent a perfectly good TMR sensor from beating a comparable Hall effect sensor in a better optimized controller.

The power savings will likely be the advantage most of us really feel. While it won’t matter for wired controllers, power savings can go a long way for wireless ones. Take the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro, for instance, a Hall effect controller offering 20 hours of battery life from a 4.5-watt-hour battery with support for a 1,000Hz polling rate on a wireless connection. Razer also offers the Wolverine V3 Pro 8K PC, a near-identical controller with the same battery offering TMR sensors. They claim the TMR version can go for 36 hours on a charge, though that’s presumably before cranking it up to an 8,000Hz polling rate — something Razer possibly left off the Hall effect model because of power usage.

The disadvantage of the TMR sensor would be its cost, but it appears that it’s negligible when factored into the entire price of a controller. Both versions of the aforementioned Razer controller are $199. Both 8BitDo and GameSir have managed to stick them into reasonably priced controllers like the 8BitDo Ultimate 2, GameSir G7 Pro and GameSir Cyclone 2.

So which wins?

It seems TMR joysticks have all the advantages of Hall effect joysticks and then some, bringing better power efficiency that can help in wireless applications. The one big downside might be price, but from what we’ve seen right now, that doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. You can even find both technologies in controllers that cost less than some potentiometer models, like the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller.

Caveats to consider

For all the hype, neither Hall effect nor TMR joysticks are perfect. One of their key selling points is that they won’t experience stick drift, but there are still elements of the joystick that can wear down. The ring around the joystick can lose its smoothness. The stick material can wear down (ever tried to use a controller with the rubber worn off its joystick? It’s not pleasant). The linkages that hold the joystick upright and the springs that keep it stiff can loosen, degrade and fill with dust. All of these can impact the continued use of the joystick, even if the Hall effect or TMR sensor itself is in perfect operating order.

So you might not get stick drift from a bad sensor, but you could get stick drift from a stick that simply doesn’t return to its original resting position. That’s when having a controller that’s serviceable or has swappable parts, like the PDP Victrix Pro BFG, could matter just as much as having one with Hall effect or TMR joysticks.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 18, #513

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 18, No. 513.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition has a fun yellow category that might just start you singing. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: I don’t care if I never get back.

Green group hint: Get that gold medal.

Blue group hint: Hoops superstar.

Purple group hint: Not front, but…

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Heard in «Take Me Out to the Ball Game.»

Green group: Olympic snowboarding events.

Blue group: Vince Carter, informally.

Purple group: ____ back.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is heard in «Take Me Out to the Ball Game.» The four answers are Cracker Jack, home team, old ball game and peanuts.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is Olympic snowboarding events. The four answers are big air, giant slalom, halfpipe and slopestyle.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is Vince Carter, informally. The four answers are Air Canada, Half-Man, Half-Amazing, VC and Vinsanity.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is ____ back. The four answers are diamond, drop, quarter and razor.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Feb. 18

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 18.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s Mini Crossword is a fun one, and it’s not terribly tough. It helps if you know a certain Olympian. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.