The Internet Channel was released just a few weeks after the big Nintendo Wii launch  back in November 2006, allowing Wii owners to a cheap and efficient way to finally surf the web through their TV without having to lift their lazy asses off the couch (yes that includes YOU). Contrary to what many considered to be useless (such as many of the Wii Channels), many folks for odd reasons or another, actually made use of the Internet Channel and discovered the “usefullness” of it. Those of you who were lucky enough to obtain a Wii early on before June 30th of this year, the Internet Channel was a simple free download as a beta before it was upgraded to the full version in April, and then went on sale in the Wii Shop Channel for price of $5.00 afterwards.

The Internet Channel featured the Opera 9 Web Browser, customized to run on the Wii. It’s was surprisingly capabable, as it allowed you to browse most websites with out any issues and supported web technologies such AJAX, RSS, and Flash 7.0. Navigation was made simple with the Wii-mote and the pop-up virtual keyboard. The last Nintendo Wii update even made it easier to use by adding USB-keyboard support.

One of the cool things about the Wii-Opera browser is that you can easily watch video clips from sites like YouTube and flash videos from NewGrounds, thus allowing us to waste more time in front of our TVs. Unfortunately, the Wii browser is limited to playing Flash 7 video clips, so anything higher is unplayable on it.

So besides watching clips, Wii owners discovered that you can actually play a lot of the flash games available out there. Such was the popularity of it, that many web designers even built sites and special flash games that were design to run on the Wii Opera Browser. The benefit in this is that now once you’ve gotten bored of grinding out with Guitar Hero 3, or shooting it out with Metroid Prime 3, and don’t have the extra cash to buy Battalion Wars 2 yet, you can load up the Internet Channel and play some free flash games!

“Pinboliada” - The Zuma Clone on the Wii Opera Browser

But are they any good? Yep, quite a few one them play very well via the Wii Opera Browser. Here’s some of my favorites :

Pinboliada - You remember Zuma, right? The game that took the casual gaming world by storm? Well now you can play it on your Wii!

Crazy Cubes - For puzzle lovers out there, this is a very addictive puzzle game. Works excellent with the Wii Opera Browser. BTW, there’s also an apparent identical game called 3D Logic.

Oshidama - An abstract casual game that only Japanese minds can conjure up, this simple game of pushing a circle to its goal will keep you addicted forever.

Smashing - Your typical Breakout clone, except with the modern adaptation of weapons and powerups.

Bare Knucle Brawl - Be John McClane from the Die Hard flics and kick some serious ass. Not quite Wii Boxing but makes good use of the Wii-mote.

Test your speed stacking skills in Stacktopolis 2.

Stackopolis 2 - An addictive puzzle stacking game in which you build geometric layouts based on the required design pattern.

Bumper Car Madness - One of the most unique games ever designed and happens to actually make use of the Wii-mote itself, the only way I can describe this game is a mix of bumper cars and Pac-man.

Missile Strike - A modernized clone of the legendary “Missile Command” game for the Atari 2600. You can never get enough of Missile Command.

Those are just a few of the games I’ve enjoyed. If you’re looking for more Wii enabled flash games, be sure to check out that little flashing icon on the bottom right hand corner of the site. Haven’t had enough? Heres some other Wii supported flash gaming sites :

• MiiWiiGames.com
• Candystand.com
• Wiiflow.com
• MiiBoard.com
• WiiCade.com
• WiiPlayable.com
• WiiArcade.com
• WiiScape

Happy Flash gaming!