Pokemon Go players still aren’t over the ‘short king’ Rhyperior bug

One of Pokemon Go’s funniest bugs has been unearthed by a trainer again, reminding users of the mini version of Rhyperior that used to plague the game… And they’re still not over it.

As the final form of Rhyhorn, dual-type Ground/Rock Pokemon Rhyperior first appeared in the Generation IV games — Diamond and Pearl. To obtain Rhyperior, players must trade a Rhydon while holding a Protector item with another Pokemon.

In the mainline titles, Rhyperior stood almost eight feet tall and over 600 lbs.

However, a 2018 Pokemon Go technical problem made Rhyperior smaller than three-feet tall Rhydon and closer to the size of an Ivysaur.

Rhyperior dramatically shrunk in Pokemon Go

The Pokemon Company / Niantic

While Niantic listed Rhyperior as roughly the same size as the Generation IV games, a mysterious glitch surfaced after his October 2018 arrival.

Niantic quickly fixed the bug, but for a short time, users could use a Sinnoh Stone to evolve their Rhydon into a dwarf Rhyperior.

On the Pokemon Go subreddit, Reddit user Summerclaw included images of tiny Rhyperior next to Pokemon like Rhydon, Arcanine, and Dragonite to show off precisely how small the Pokemon used to be. Some trainers failed to remember the hilarious glitch but thanked Summerclaw for bringing it to their attention.

After being graced by smol Rhyperior’s presence, fans labeled the Pokemon a “short king” and stressed it was secretly “Danny DeVito” in disguise. “Rhyperior had real ‘Mom said it’s my turn on the Xbox’ energy,” Total_Dork wrote.

Besides Rhyperior, other comments pointed out Niantic’s past mistakes with the sizes of Pokemon.

“This reminds me of when they added Dusknoir to the game, but he was too high up, so he constantly had his head in the ceiling,” Reasonable_Potato_22 wrote. Additional examples included an extra-large Lotad, a tiny Seviper, and the unfixed Alolan Grimer bug.

Along with incorrect measurements, Niantic introduced a New Size Record Banner in January 2023. The feature appears after players catch an XXL or XXS Pokemon. However, some trainers criticized the New Size Record Banner for taking up most of the screen.