Wii owners who have their console’s WiiConnect24 feature activated know that each day can bring a new surprise. Whether it’s a holiday photo sent by a friend or the announcement of a new Channel by Nintendo, when Wii’s blue light shines it means something has appeared on the Wii Message Board. And from today there are even more surprises in store.

The Wii Shop Channel now contains a Gift feature, allowing you to surprise Wii Friends with a downloadable Virtual Console game or Wii Software.

You purchase the gift by redeeming Wii Points just like you would if you were browsing the Wii Shop Channel for yourself, but now you can select the Gift option and choose one of your Wii Friends as the intended recipient.

It doesn’t matter if you’re not sure if your friend perhaps already has the Virtual Console game or Wii Software that you selected; you will be notified automatically if that is the case, and are then free to browse for a different gift before you redeem any Wii Points.

In order to surprise someone with a gift from the Wii Shop Channel, the country settings of your Wii console need to be the same as your friend’s. We’ve put together a comprehensive Q&A in our Support section that provides you with answers to many questions you may have about this feature. You can also access this Q&A directly in the Wii Shop Channel by selecting the Shopping Guide from its main menu.

The Gift feature of the Wii Shop Channel is intended as a convenient way to surprise someone you care about – and who knows, maybe someone else will think of you as well and let you wake up to the blue light of surprise.