Pokemon GO’s new Size Stats are Annoying

One of the newer features in Pokemon GO’s winter updates was something to track the sizes of Pokemon. Normally, every caught Pokemon has a weight and height, but this update boosted the visibility, adding little ribbons for Pokemon are bigger or smaller.

New sizes

This update also introduced two more sizes. Your Pokemon can now be extra large or extra small. These do seem to be quite rare though. During the Community Weekend back in December, despite catching tons of Pokemon, I only saw a handful of extra small Pokemon. Didn’t see any extra large ones though. The game does notify you when you get an extra small or extra large Pokemon. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s not anything special.

That being said, there are two new medals for the abnormally sized Pokemon. Medals are particularly important for levels higher than 40, as several levels require having to have a certain amount of gold or platinum medals. While inherently random, extra big and small Pokemon are at least something you can collect over time, mostly by chance.

The ribbon gets in the way

The annoying thing about the size update is that it updates and appears at the same time as the appraisal screen, sort of hanging over it. it’s not a large animation or anything, but it is repetitive. I don’t need to be informed that I’ve caught a slightly abnormally sized Pokemon every time I try and catch one.

At least the ribbon goes away after you’ve caught a bunch of Pokemon that are large or small. So you can skip the banner because all you have are average Pokemon. Also, more importantly, the change is retroactive, so all the Pokemon you’ve caught in the past are evaluated too. You won’t have any extra large or small Pokemon, but the game at least shows the lightest and shortest, or heaviest or tallest Pokemon you already own.

Only works with certain Pokemon so far

Also coming with this update are actual size differences that you can actually see. As in, if you catch an extra small Pikachu, it actually is extra small. However, this has only been added to a very small handful of Pokemon, mostly just Poochyena. This is something I really hope they don’t drip feed us with, because I’d love to have an extra small Houndoom, and I don’t want to wait years for it. I also kinda hope the extra sizes get applied to legendary Pokemon as well. There are a LOT of Pokemon now, it’ll take forever to give them all extra big and small sizes at the pace Niantic are going.

Thing is, I do like having different Pokemon sizes, and I would like to see the size differences. But the way this update introduced extra sizes is a little bit annoying. It’s also completely cosmetic and doesn’t really affect anything. These extra sizes are aimed more at collectors, who will definitely want the biggest or smallest Pokemon.