Supposedly, the image on your right are silhouettes of new pocket monsters set to premiere in Nintendo's upcoming cash generator Pokemon Platinum. For those of you with very good sight, that would be them to the right of this text right here.

Japanese site blue skY is reporting that this image is an advertisement from a Toys R Us in Japan. We'd like to comment further, but up until today, we didn't know there were Toys R Us chains in Japan. For those of you who're Pokemaniacs, care to comment on these?

Do they resemble the shapes of other Pokemon?

[Via Go Nintendo and Pokemon Platinum]

Doesn't it just drive you nuts when a game is an exclusive, like the recent Soul Bubbles seems to be? It seems like a poor choice for the studios; their game may get an extra mention or two, but people still have to go out of their way if they want it, and the chances of stumbling across a game that's exclusive to a particular retailer are smaller. But we've seen a lot of dumb decisions, so it doesn't really surprise us. What we want to know this morning is: do you ever go out of your way to buy exclusives? If yes, when was the last time you did so?

Toys R Us is holding its annual "buy two, get one free" DS promotion again starting on Sunday the 22nd, according to the latest weekly ad (as transcribed by CAG denizens). It's a great time for it, too: people getting Guitar Hero On Tour should be able to defray some of the cost by bundling it with two other games. Of course, even if you don't care about On Tour, you can get a great deal on some DS games. We just focused on that because it's new and it's so expensive that any other DS game comes in at an "equal or lesser value."

Guitar Hero is expensive enough that, under the right conditions (purchasing two Square Enix games along with it), you could get a free Square Enix game! Final Fantasy Tactics A2 comes out next week, for example -- $90 for Guitar Hero, FFTA2, and The World Ends with You is a relatively non-terrible deal.

[Via CAG]

Pokemaniacs should take note: Toys R Us is once again catering to the needs of Pokefanatics by offering you a chance to catch the uncatchable Darkrai Pokemon. The weekend of May 31 - June 1, participating Toys R Us stores will be providing inn keys to those who bring in their DS, along with a copy of Pokemon Diamond or Pokemon Pearl, which will provide them a shot at catching this bad boy thing.

Mazes of Fate has some impressive graphics for a GBA release, and it also has the distinction of being the first Latin American-developed game for a Nintendo console. So, why did no one pick it up? Three reasons:

1. As a handheld first-person RPG -- think Eye of the Beholder -- it has no mainstream appeal
2. It's a GBA title that didn't come out until late 2006, long after most people stopped paying attention to GBA games
3. It has virtually no presence in brick and mortar locations; the official site suggests you purchase Mazes of Fate on eBay

Seeing as none of those issues relate to the actual quality of the game, we think you should still pick up Mazes of Fate if you're interested in it at all, especially since Toys "R" US has the dungeon crawler on sale for only $9.99! Move forward and past the break to watch the four-minute trailer publisher Graffiti Entertainment put out for the game.

See also: Mazes of Fate getting ported from GBA

Looks like Target isn't the only one turning down titles lately -- Toys 'R' Us is getting into the game as well by not carrying either Manhunt 2 ... or Dementium! We're terribly disappointed in the retailer, but we could understand the motivation -- after all, if any store was ever aimed at children, it's TRU, and Dementium is a mature title.

However, it's not that simple. Word around the campfire is that the TRU folks made the decision not because of the game's rating, but because they didn't think it would be very popular and they didn't want to waste the space. Now, we're not sure what the gaming section is like at your local Toys 'R' Us, but we've seen some pretty questionable shovelware gracing the shelves down here. Is it an excuse to avoid any controversy, or is the retail giant planning to focus future shelf space only on release they feel are more likely to sell?

Regardless of the reason, while we can again understand a retailer aimed at children skipping mature titles (if they were consistent about it, that is), but randomly deciding what will and will not be popular is pretty lame. We remember another little game that got such treatment at first ....