- It made kids moist at Christmas.
Whether it’s your first time playing, or you’re firing it up again for another trip around Kanto, one of the most troubling questions for all budding Pokémon Masters is, what starter Pokémon should I choose?
Trying to come from an unbiased opinion as possible, from someone who is somewhat experienced in Pokémon but is by no means a competitive battler (basement dweller), I’ll give you some handy tips on who to pick and the reasons why, so you can slam your rival’s face into the dirt, bag all the monsters you can, and show the Elite Four your 1337 skills.
Bulbasaur -> Ivysaur -> Venusaur
Grass/Poison
Do I need to Vine Whip a bitch?
The only Pokémon who is dual-type from the get go, and arguably the best starter for beginning players or those who want it relatively easy from the beginning. Bulbasaur evolves to its next form, Ivysaur, at level 16, the same level as the other two starters, but reaches its final form Venusaur at level 32. Four levels lower than that of Charmeleon and Wartortle who get to their final stage at level 36.
The key benefit of Bulbasaur is being primarily a grass type, he can take out the first gym leaders with relative ease, since they have rock/ground and water Pokémon respectively, as well as shrug off attacks from the next two gym leaders, by which time you should have other competent monsters at your disposal. It’s important to note as a part poison type, psychic attacks will hurt a lot.
The main issue is Bulbasaur is arguably not as powerful, or as awesome looking as his counterparts, and since grass-type Pokémon are quite easy to find later in the game, you might opt to have a powerful water or fire type early on, since they’re not so easy to find.
Charmander -> Charmeleon -> Charizard
Fire
Flamethrower. 'Nuff said.
Charmander is the fire option, and arguably the hardest to begin the game with. Charmander will eventually fully evolve into the fire/flying type Charizard, with a good special stat. The main issue to begin with is the first two gym leaders can squash you due to your type disadvantage, them having rock/ground and water type Pokémon. You’re going to need to raise a Butterfree by catching a Caterpie from Virdian Forest to lay a psychic smackdown on Brock’s Onix, and you could perhaps also catch a Pikachu there (although they can be tricky to find) so you can paralyse and electrocute Misty’s Starmie and Staryu. Other than that you’ll reap the benefits of having a powerful fire type early on as you can easily sweep grass and bug types out of the way, and you’ll have the fourth gym leader on lockdown too.
Charmander evolves into Charmeleon at level 16 and Charizard at level 36. Charizard is a flying type too, so you have to especially watch out for rock and electric type attacks.
Drenches fire types and "doesn't afraid of anything."
Squirtle -> Wartortle -> Blastoise
Water
The most well balanced of the two, having a water type starter will allow you to knock down the first gym leader Brock with relative ease and give you some help against the second, but definitely not the third or fourth, but hopefully you should have grass or rock Pokémon to deal with the electrical gym leader, and flying or even a psychic type to deal with Erika’s grass arsenal. Squirtle and his evolutions can learn to Surf, which is not only a powerful attack but is useful for getting around later in the game. Unfortunately you’ll have to be careful with Squirtle when going up against early grass or electric Pokémon, but plenty of hikers with Geodudes will cower in fear as you water gun their ass.
Squirtle evolves into Wartortle at level 16 and Blastoise at level 36. And there isn’t much more satisfying than getting your Blastoise to Hydro Pump your enemies. Especially on Pokémon Stadium on Nintendo 64.
Hopefully that’s been some help and this hasn’t been too boring to read! It’s all down to choice, and don’t worry! All three are great, so you’ll never need to worry that you’ve made the wrong choice.
Images courtesy of Wikipedia.org
