Nintendo News Wrap September 6th, 2006: Far Cry Wii, Nintendo Stock Hits Six Year High, Mario Hoops 3-on-3 and Mario Vs. Donkey Kong 2 Release Dates

Gamers aren’t the only ones salivating in anticipation of Nintendo’s new console Wii. This past week, investment bank Merril Lynch raised its target share price from $25 to $29. For the non-business savvy, this means that all the consumer and games industry enthusiasm for Wii is raising Nintendo’s stock even before the system is released. Why’s that good news for fans? Well, if Nintendo is worth more and they keep making more, they’ll create more of the gaming goodness we all know and love.

And speaking of Wii, details surrounding Ubisoft’s FPS Far Cry have finally started to leak out. Far Cry, a very successful first-person shooter across myriad platforms, will feature motion control on Wii: flicking the nunchuck attachment upwards will make the player character jump and moving the Wiimote forward will activate the sniper rifle. Graphically, Ubisoft’s Andre Vu told podcasters VGMFusion that Far Cry will push Wii to its limits running at 30 fps in 480p. It’s good to hear that developers are taking advantage of Wii’s pro-scan capabilities.

In DS news, Nintendo announced the final release dates for two first party titles in a press release today. Square-Enix developed Mario Hoops 3-on-3 will be available on September 13th and Mario vs. Donkey Kong 2: March of the Minis will hit shelves on September 27th. Based on screenshots alone, both games look hot so mark your calendars.

You might have caught it here on Associated Content a couple weeks back, but Nintendo and MTV’s “Played-Out” contest still has two days left so head on over to http://playedout.mtv.com and enter if you haven’t already. The grand prize winner receives an all-expense paid trip on a Zero-G zero gravity plane for them and a friend as well as a Nintendo DS Lite and copies of Metroid Prime Hunters, Mario Kart DS, and Tetris DS. Free DS Lite people! Hop to!