So I’m a pretty big fan of Pokémon. Iv played all of the mainline games and most of the spin-offs to some capacity, mostly to completion and then some. So I though I’d share which starter I pick for each game.
Gen 1
Alright gen one, now I’ve not spent the greatest amount of time with the original red and blue but I have played through the remakes Fire red and Leaf green, and while its not my favorite Pokémon game, it is definitely a classic. Anyway, my pick of the original trio of starters of Charmander, Bulbasaur, Squirtle (and I guess Pikachu technically), is the ever so popular Charmander. While he isn’t the best pick for a easy early game I’m quite partial to the fire type as you will soon see and Charzard is definitely the coolest fully evolved gen one starter, in my opinion at least. Also considering that Charzard got two mega evolutions compared to Venusaur and Blastoises one, It seems I’m not alone in my choice. While the designs of these starters are pretty simple when compered to future generations, I feel that express the characteristics of each starter excellently.
Gen 2
Moving on, Generation two is probably the one I’ve spent the most time with mainly with Heart Gold and Soul Silver but iv also spent my fair share of time with crystal and the fan remake Pokémon 3D (which i urge you to check out). Out of every play through I have always chosen to go with Totodile, every, single, time. I’m a huge fan of big crocky boy and can’t possibly imagine journeying around Johto without him. I do love the inspiration behind Cyndaquil’s volcanoish neck and while that makes it a solid second, Chikorita is just aggressively “meh” in my opinion, sorry to anyone who picks Chikorita. I just don’t find the style to be appealing, and overall I’d say I’m not a huge fan of grass type Pokémon.
Gen 3
Generation 3 is a funny one for me, I have played through it a few time but rather than sticking with one starter every time, I have varied it up a few times. Usually switching between Torchic and Treecko, While Blaziken is super kick-ass, I always thought the Treecko line was super cool looking, even when I was stupid kid who didn’t even know what Pokémon was. Mudkip is pretty cute for it first stage, however I once again find myself severely apathetic to Swapert. I don’t know why but its final stage just doesn’t really draw any interest for me and I just find myself gravitating towards speed build Pokémon. Although I must say that if Swampert looked more like its Mega evolution i might be singing a different tune. He got some beef in those arms. So yeh, Treecko get the vote for me.
Gen 4
Alright, halfway there with the Diamond, Pearl and Platinum games, This was the first generation of games that I played myself and so I have some pretty strong nostalgia for these guys. Now i have had a similar experience with generation 4 as I did in gen 3, regularly swapping between both Piplup and Chimchar, However there is no competition for me here, Chimchar wins by a landslide. A fire monkey is just a awesome idea and I absolutely love the design, Infernape is just crazy cool looking and well like I said, I have a affinity for fire types. This generation dud for me is Turtwig, however this time its not for its looks. I think Torterra has a absolutely bad ass design, for me the main detractor again is its speed, it just doesn’t work for my main tactic, although I would consider using Torterra for a wall in doubles match, especially for its HP gain moves. However Infernape’s speed is what gives it the edge for me.
Gen 5
On to the notoriously disliked generation 5. Now I can definitely understand where people are coming from when they say generation five is bad, but I also do like and appreciate what gamefreak were going for with there urban inspired designs. In fact there are quite a few gen 5 Pokémon that I would say are some of my favorite (Hydreigon, Zoroark and Cofagrigus to name a few). However where my interest fails is with the starters. I’m not a huge fan of them, I just don’t think they are really all that interesting and while I somewhat like the designs I just don’t find them all too inspired. However given the choice I have always gone with Oshawott, its the only starter that has any meaningful change in its forms, where as the other two starters, Tepig and Snivy just sorta get bigger, Although shiny Emboar is pretty cool. Overall Gen 5 does have my least favorite starters but don’t let that stand reflective of my overall feelings of the generation as a whole.
Gen 6
So generation 6 is my least favorite generation, X and Y are the games I’ve spent the least amount of time with, while I liked the change in art style and the shift to 3D models, I really couldn’t get into the games to any great extent. Now I know I said that generation 5 had my least favorite starters but Generation 6 doesn’t fair much better, in fact generation 6’s Pokémon have as much substance as air to me, for the most part. Chespin, Fennekin and Froakie all just seem very weak in design and, with the exception of Greninja, that stays true for all stages. As such Froakie is my pick for starter in this generation but only because I like Greninja. I’m not sure why, but very few of the Pokémon in generation 6 Pokémon actually feel like Pokémon to me, with the rest feeling more like fan game level Pokémon rather than what I would expect from a Pokémon game.
Gen 7
Generation 7 is a great return to form for me, all three of the starters are great, I love the designs of all three. On top of that we finally get some interesting type pairs in the final stages, these type combination are fantastic and are actually a pretty big pull for me, in particular Decidueye’s grass and ghost and Incineroar’s fire and dark. While not unique combination its different from what starters usually are, so big thumbs up there. So out of the trio of Rowlet, Litten and Popplio, I have to give my vote to Litten, the fake wrestler motif it brilliant and really stands out from the other fire starters. I have to give Rowlet a strong second place however, Decidueye looks fantastic. Popplio is also pretty well designed and I definitively know why people like it, but it just doesn’t appeal to me, I’m just not a fan of ruffles.
Gen 8
Finally we reach the current generation, for me Generation 8 abit different, while I feel that the designs are similar to generation 6, that being uninteresting to me, I think that the animals that the starters are based on are unique enough to be interesting, for the most part. Grookey is pretty interesting at first glance and probably has my favorite evolution design out of the trio, however my vote goes to Scorbunny as he fit in with my general preferences for play style and type. However I do think that his final form is rather lackluster. Unfortunately for Sobble, I lose all interest in its evolution chain once it reaches its second form. becoming pretty uninteresting. However generation 8 hasn’t been around for all to long so my opinion might change given time.
And that’s it for starter. So let me know, do you agree or not, let me know what your favorite Pokémon starters are. Also let me know if you would be interested in me reviewing the Pokémon games or maybe each generation as a whole.
H
All picture were taken from https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokedex/
The Anime Accord 