Pokemon come in all different shapes and sizes, and not just because some are weird little egg babies (or whatever Togepi is) while others are literal dragons. Pokemon GO tracks the height and weight of your Pokemon, but these metrics don’t shape battles the way that your Pokemon’s type, stats, and moveset do. It’s therefore no surprise that many players ignore them. Particularly large Pokemon have a chance to win Showcases at PokeStops. Seeing your favorite chunky Pokemon win a glorified beauty pageant isn’t the biggest deal, but it’s a nice touch. So why don’t XXS Pokemon get any love from Niantic?
XXS Pokemon May Never Get a Showcase in GO
There’s a weird disconnect between the attention given to XXL Pokemon and that given to XXS Pokemon. Our littlest friends have gotten next to no love from Niantic, and it’s not clear why. XXL Pokemon, meanwhile, have been the darlings of “Biggest Size” Showcases in Pokemon GO for a while. Compared to raids and other major events, Showcases aren’t a huge deal. Sure, winning is nice, but these events are mostly just an excuse to get googly-eyed over a gang of adorable Rowlets and Jigglypuffs. In some ways though, the lack of deep mechanics makes it even weirder that XXS Pokemon never get featured.
Why introduce two remarkable size categories and then only ever feature one of them in events? Niantic may have been waiting to introduce some unique mechanic or event tied to XXS Pokemon and the time just hasn’t been right. Unfortunately, going so long without any news or encouragement has left many trainers frustrated. Some are going so far as to purge XXS Pokemon from their ranks since there’s zero benefit to being little at the moment. With the apparent phasing out of Raid Tickets, it’s possible that Niantic might just let the dream of an XXS Showcase die too. I just wish we knew why.
Pokemon GO is available for iOS and Android.
