Remember when the Wii was first announced and you heard about Japanese club Nintendo subscribers getting dummy remotes that simply had TV remote functionality? Do you remember wishing you could have one of those to? Well now Japanese Wii owners can!

When I got back from LA this week I was delighted to find a new TV Guide channel available on the Wii shop (free as always) that gives you a guide to all the channels and shows in your local. Not only that, but you can use your Wii’s to “stamp” the shows you are interested in so the rest of the family knows when your TV time is. Oh and you can also use it to tell friends (or Nintendo corporate) what you’ve been watching.

As an added bonus the new channel can actually let you switch TV channels using the Wii remote and even control the volume, but only if you have a fancy Japanese brand-name TV (which I don’t).

However, as someone without real cable, digital channels or a fancy satellite system, it’s great that I can have just as functional a TV guide as would come with a much pricier system!