I bought Yellow when it came out, so my first starter was Pikachu, and I used Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle on my first team.
Otherwise, I always had a thing for Bulbasaur when I eventually got Blue from a friend.

I personally thinks Piplup has the best chain evolution of all water starters. Empoleon is one of my favorites. However, I do like penguins maybe that's why I like them so much.

I got to play Pokemon before no one knew about Pokemon when we got it for Game Boy as a Christmas present, Blue Version that is. It was undeniably the best Game Boy game out there. I chose Bulbasaur!

Charmander every chance i get. Then i can breed it and after a few hundred thousand times end up with a black charizard.

I never saw why people like Charizard so much. Charmander and Charmeleon are cool but I just hate Charizard to death.

Anyway, Bulbasaur is basically for people who enjoy playing on Easy Mode when you look at it.


Squirtle is the way to go.

There isn't much of an advantage beyond the first two gyms. He definitely doesn't help against Erika, Koga, Sabrina or Blaine.

Charmander, always Charmander. I'm not sure if I ever even picked the other two now that I think about it.

Squirtle will remain the best until the day Pokemon dies.

100% agreed.

On my very first playthrough I took Squirtle. (But I have taken Bulbasaur in Leaf Green though).

heres what Ive started with over the games:

Pokemon Blue: Squirtle
Pokemon Leaf Green: Bulbasaur
Pokemon Silver and Soul Silver: Chikorita
Pokemon Sapphire: Mudkip
Pokemon Pearl: Piplup
Pokemon Platinum: Chimchar
Pokemon White: Tepig

On my White 2 I will be taking Oshawatt.

Ive never really been a fan of most of the fire starters. I took Tepig, despite preferring Oshawott, to mix it up a bit and as I had heard there weren't many decent fire types till later in the game. Im not sure if its also cause Vulpix is one of my favourite all time pokemon and Ive always wanted to pick that up as my fire type.

When me and my friend got Red/Blue we did the thing trade over thingy so we could both have all three.

But Charmander was my favourite, I've actually been wanting to get Red/Blue again and catch all 151, theres just too many now to for me to be arsed with the rest, I only realy like the first two gens.

I picked Cindiquil gen 2. My Alakazam had the biggest Pokepenis though, my favourite Pokemon :)

I will be rejecting all starters in Black 2.

I didn't want one in White, but the pokemon in the first three routes sucked.

After I leave Aspertia City in Black 2, that starter is going in the Box. FOREVER!

I haven't played B/W yet, but the starters look really bad. The Snivy line is okay, but wtf is with Emboar and Samurott?

The designs in Gen 5 are a big turn off for me. There are some cool ones, but so many are either disgustingly cutesy (Neopets shit like Blitzle), or just overdone with spikes and shit to the point where you can't tell what the hell it's supposed to be. And then some are just plain hideous.



I like Pokemon that actually look like Pokemon:



I don't actually hate Garbodor and Vanilluxe, though. They'd just be a lot better without the cutesy faces. Why do they need to look like that? Weezing and Muk look nasty, why shouldn't a pile of garbage?

Perhaps they'll grow on me once I actually play the game, but for now: Emboar and Samurott sux.

Here are the number of times each starter has a type advantage at gyms in Gen 1:

Bulbasaur - 4 (Brock, Misty, Surge, Giovanni)
Charmander - 2 (Erika, Koga)
Squirtle - 3 (Brock, Blaine, Giovanni)

Bulbasaur is easy mode at the beginning, but its stats don't quite reach those of the other starters end-game, and like Mime said it does you no good at most of the later gyms... it isn't very good against the Elite Four either. Every team except for Bruno's gives it serious trouble. Squirtle is the true easy mode, as it gets the best stats, has a pretty good movepool (I wouldn't want to run up against a Surf/Ice Beam/Earthquake/Toxic Blastoise, that's for sure), and can take a beating. The only advantage that Charizard truly has on the other guys is speed.

I'd argue that Squirtle is the best starter from a gameplay standpoint simply because it's the only one that isn't dual-typed at the end. Better STAB and fewer weaknesses, yo.

Is it bad that I neither know nor care about what the hell STAB means?

Yes. Same Type Attack Bonus. Water types do more damage with water moves, etc.

Well then I did know that, but don't care for terminology

Yeah but STAB is like the coolest acronym

G1: Charmander, and then I got to the elite 4 and kept losing, so I restarted with bulbasaur XD
G2: Cyndaquil, although I dislike all the starters this gen, I traded for Scyther as soon as I could trade, and considered that my charger
G3: Torchic. I love all of these starters though. Really nice like Gen 1
G4: Chimchar. I like these starters too
G5: emboar just because I usually start fire. I disliked all the starters once I saw their final forms.

I wish they'd drop the Fire/Fighting typing. I haven't really liked the Fire starters since Cyndaquil (Torchic is alright, but I don't like Blaziken). There are so many type combinations they could go with, yet it's been Fire/Fighting for 3 generations. Boo.

I'm glad you saw the light, bro.

I usually dig the combination of Fire/Fighting because it's strong against so many types: Grass, Steel, Ice, Normal, Rock, Bug, Dark.

Sure, if you're a type purist, then Gen II is definitely for you (I think it's the only generation with all of the starters ending up Water, Fire, and Grass in their final evolutions).

But for me, the Fighting aspect of the Torchic, Chimchar and Tepig lines has come in handy a lot.

I bloody love Samurott, me. He looks totally badass.

Bulbasaur is the best Pokemon period.

Forget Squirtle, Charizard and all the rest. Bulbasaur fucks your shit.

Literally same. I always choose the water starter.