Nintendo said in September that the Wii game console -- this holiday season's hot item -- would include a trial version of the Opera Web browser. Today, Nintendo and Opera announced that the browser will be available for free download beginning Friday. The announcement came from Nintendo in Europe, but it looks like Wii owners everywhere can download the browser.

Here's the news from Opera in comic form, a nice twist on the traditional press release.

From Nintendo's press release: "The final version of the Opera browser will be available at the end of March 2007, and will be free for all Wii owners to download through the end of June. After June 2007, the browser will be available for download in the Wii Shop Channel for 500 Wii Points."

Adding a browser to the Wii strengthens Nintendo's position in the living room. Opera, meanwhile, is pursuing a strategy to optimize its browser, which trails offerings from Microsoft and Mozilla, for use on set-top boxes, mobile and other devices.