Ranking all the Starter Pokémon

Grass, Fire or Water? Choose wisely.

A few days ago I came across a post on the Pokémon subreddit where the Redditor asked what everyone´s starter picks were for each generation. Said post was removed because of some weird rule regarding the combination of the image and tags that were used before I could chip in. Removed or not I really like the idea. I have some stories to tell about what starters I chose, and that´s the story of how this post came to be. A fun piece about the history I have with the Pokémon starters and a natural companion piece to my 'Ranking all 9 Pokémon generations' post. 

Before diving into my list we got to tackle those pesky disclaimers. This list is highly subjectable. It´s my opinion on all the Pokémon Starters and which one I chose for my first playthrough and not an objective ´this is the best starter to pick for each game´. For convenience's sake, I will also list them in generational order instead of the order I played through each game. 

With all of that out of the way, let´s dive in.

Gen I: Red & Blue

From the Kanto region starters, my first pick was Charmander. However, I didn't choose it in Red & Blue or even in Fire Red & Leaf Green. I got it from Professor Oak in Soul Silver. I chose it because as a little kid, I was on that 'Charizard hype train'. It's a fire-breathing dragon, what was not to love?

I still like it but these days my first pick for Kanto is actually Bulbasaur. The overexposure of Charizard plays a role in this shift but I also just think Bulbasaur is cuter. I've become fond of Venusaur as well. Both its Mega and Gigantamax forms are considered the 'worst' of the three. The 'buttflower' of Mega Venasaur got ridiculed endlessly but all that ridicule is actually what made me like it more. Plus: I quite like those designs, the Gigantamax one especially. That's why I chose Bulbasaur from Mustard in the Isle of Armour expansion. 

Moving on to number 3 with Squirtle: it's fine. I don't have anything bad to say about it and its family but I can't say anything I'm particularly fond of about them either. Picked it as my '2nd starter' in my first Y playthrough and was my primary Mega Pokémon but that's about it. 

Gen II: Gold, Silver & Crystal

For Johto, Cyndaquill is the Pokémon for me. I vividly remember borrowing my cousin's GameBoy Colour with Pokémon Gold for a few hours when we both were at our grandmother's. I picked Cyndaquill because one of the anime. One of the earliest episodes I watched was the one in which Ash's Cyndaquill fights a Skarmory. I managed to evolve it into a Quilava and beat Falkner before I had to give the game back. Once I got Soul Silver for myself it was the logical choice. Typhlosion isn't quite what I wanted as a final form, I still think they should've kept Quilava's flame tail, but no design is perfect. 

Chikorita is also a nice starter. A cute little dinosaur with a big leaf on its head. Bayleef looks even better, a more mature and graceful Chikorita but Meganium drops the ball. I don't actively hate or even dislike any of the 1000+ Pokémon but when it comes down to it, Meganium is low on my list. It has everything to do with that head. The big leaf Chikorita and Bayleef have is the striking feature of the line yet is completely missing from Meganium. It makes the design instantly boring. If Meganium gets a regional form ala the Hisuian Typhlosion they need to bring that leaf back. 

Totodile falls in the same category as the Squirtle line. It has things I like, it has an air of coolness to it but, nothing about the line stands out to me.

Gen III: Ruby, Sapphire & Emerald

Ah, the Hoenn region. The region that started it all for me. The tail end of Gen III and the entirety of Gen IV was my childhood so I got a lot of exposure to their starters. You'd say that would make picking my favourite difficult, but it really isn't. I have a clear, never wavering, favourite for both.

With Hoenn, it's Treecko. Another anime-inspired pick. One of my favourite episodes as a kid is 'Tree's a Crowd', the episode in which Ash catches his Treecko. Because of this episode, Treecko became one of my favourite Pokémon. It was thus an easy pick as my first partner for my very first Pokémon game, Emerald. I really like Grovyle and Sceptile as well, though Grovyle a bit more than Sceptile. That long-head leaf (again) does it for me. 

For the record, I like both Mudkip and Torchic as well, just not as much as Treecko. All three have strong designs in all three stages. Torchic and Mudkip are cute in their own ways, Marshtomp is my favourite of the middle stages and Blaziken is a very cool design. And useful. Speed Boost Blaziken, Mega or not, is a beast in any Gen VI playthrough! 

Gen IV: Diamond, Pearl & Platinum

Rolling from one childhood generation into the next: my Sinnoh starter is Piplup.

My first experience with Generation IV was me and my Mom going through the recently released Sinnoh Pokédex on her computer. From the 3 starters Piplup (which I thought was pronounced as Pyplup at the time) caught my attention. It was a penguin like those funny penguins from the Madagascar movies. One that evolved into the regal-looking water/steel Empoleon. Way better than that boring turtle and a weird monkey (my thoughts back then). I like Turtwig and Chimchar better these days but Piplup is still my favourite. 

All of that said though, Chimchar has become my 'top pick' for any new playthroughs. Sinnoh severely lacks fire types with Infernape being the best one, hands down. Plus, Chimchar was 'me' in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness. It gets extra points for that too. 

Turtwig? He's fine. Falls into that category as Squirtle and Totodile. I will say that I still have a Torterra action figure from way back in the day. A toy I really liked growing up.

Gen V: Black & White

For Pokémon Black & White, I consider Snivy my official pick but it was Tepig that I chose first.

I liked the chubby-looking pig Pokémon and thought Emboar was the best-looking final evolution of the 3 starters. To this day I think that holds true for its shiny form across all starters. I played White to completion with Emboar and a team consisting of Unfezant, Scrafty, Krookodile, Excadrill and Simisage and it took me only 4-5 days to do so. 

Snivy was my starter when I went through the game a 2nd time shortly after that first playthrough because I liked it so much. I chose it because I wanted to have a different experience this 2nd go around and I liked it better than Oshawott. Snivy is who I now consider my 'official' pick. Why? Because I had a lot more fun using it on my team during that playthrough than I did the Tepig line. I also learned to appreciate Serperior's design more over time. The knowledge that it does have arms, it just keeps them tugged behind its back, helped. Can't say why exactly but it did.

My exact thoughts on the Oshawott line, you say? Let's put a pin in that for now. 

Gen VI: X & Y

Now we've entered my 'modern' gaming era. Between the release of Black & White and X & Y, I fell off the gaming wagon. It was only after the reveal of Gen VI and my desire to play the first ever mainline 3D Pokémon games that I bought a 3DS and started gaming again. 

In the marketing lead-up to X & Y's release, I consumed every bit of news there was, over and over. When the three starters were revealed, and this will be a pattern going forward, I immediately gravitated towards one of them: Fennekin. I remember why exactly anymore but I think it had to do with the design of the ears and its muzzle. With the reveal of Braixen the line was clearly going for a Witch theme and I had no qualms with that. Fire/Psychic was an uncommon typing so that's another thing that Delphox has going for it in my eyes. 

Fennekin wasn't the only starter during my first playthrough though. Thanks to the lovely feature that is Wonder Trading I got a Froakie right after getting the Voltage Badge. Froakie and Frogadier are perfectly fine designs but Greninja? Yeah, he's cool. 

Chespin is 3rd and last. Just like Froake, I find the line perfectly serviceable. It´s just not my favourite. I picked it on my 2nd playthrough through Kalos and Chesnaught was quite good. Even with a weakness to the Ice type, it managed to take down all of Wulfric's Pokémon. 

Gen VII: Sun & Moon

For my vacation in Alola, I chose Rowlett as my partner. It's a grass owl that looks like a coconut. What more is there to love? Dartrix looked a bit too much like a vain child in puberty but Decidueye brought the design back to cool town with the hood, the archery and its secondary Ghost typing. 

I'm not a cat person and Litten's design was so basic that it didn't stand out to me. Incineroar, while fierce-looking, is too human for my liking. I liked that Popplio is a seal, it reminds me of the seals of Ecomare whenever the family took a vacation to Texel, but I don't like how comical it looks. The clown aspects, that big red nose and the white of the snout that is reminiscent of clown make-up, pull the design down for me. Primarina looks a lot better and I dig the typing but it too looks a bit uncanny. 

Gen VII: Let's Go Pikachu & Let's Go Eevee

The Let's Go games are odd when it comes to the starter. Your starter depends on the game you pick and that choice is about more than just the starter. Even so, I wanted to give these games a quick mention. 

For me, my starter was Pikachu. It was Let's Go Pikachu which was on sale during Black Friday. Even though that forced my choice, I do like Pikachu over Eevee as a starter. More iconic and more fitting for a partner in these games. 

Gen VIII: Sword & Shield

In the UK-inspired Galar, I picked Scorbunny. I can remember waiting at the train station, commuting back from class, looking at the newly revealed starters. From the 3, Scorbunny with its energetic smile stood out to me. Cinderace is also my favourite of the final evolutions. The long ears that look like flames, that 'winning pose' it does and a very cool Gigantamax form to boot. It stands on a big ball of fire, like a boss. 

Sobble didn't tickle my fancy and neither did Grookey. I didn't like the personality that Sobble conveyed, looked too much like a crybaby and I found Grookey to be too plain. Going to their evolved forms, Inteleon just looks weird with its lanky proportions and weird hand and Rillaboom is cool, but again too plain. 

Gen VIII: Legends Arceus

Legends Arceus is another outlier. Its starter trio is a combination of previous starters but with new, regional final forms. Out of the choice of Rowlett, Cyndaquill and Oshawott, I picked the latter. As you've read, it's the only one of the three that I hadn't chosen earlier. I partnered with it in Hisui to have a ´fresh´ starter, hoping that the new Hisuian Samurott would be a better design than the original one. 

I was not disappointed with Hisuian Samurott. I was never a fan of Samurott. It´s a big departure from Dewott and just wasn´t that ´cool´. Hisuian Samurott, with its darker colour scheme and new shells, fixes that for me. Oshawott and Dewott were pretty useful throughout my time in Hisui and I got a bigger appreciation for the line because of it. 

Hisuian Decidueye is on about the same level as Alolan Decidueye. It´s a ronin instead of an archer and that´s neat enough. I still don´t quite know where Hisuian Typhlosion ranks. It does more with the vanilla base Typhlosion design but that face, those eyes, just don´t work I think. 

Gen IX: Scarlet & Violet

Upon the reveal of the Paldea starters, Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly, there wasn't a single one of them that really spoke to me. They all had things I liked and they all had things that I didn't like. I ended up going for Quaxly because it reminded me of all the Donald Duck stories I used to read as a kid. Its final form Quaquaval isn´t bad but I do like the concept better than the execution. 

I bred a traded in Sprigatito to get a female Sprigatito for my playthrough as well because its design, Floragato´s especially, had grown on me. Plus: I could use a good Dark type. Fuecoco is fun looking too but I feel that its final form, Skellidirge, is overdesigned. It has too much going on, muddling it all. I don't have much more to say about these three. They're new so they're still marinating in my brain. 

..........

And that was the list. My starter Pokémon picks and my history with the Starter Pokémon in general. I hope you liked the read and hey, now that you're here, why not tell your Starter stories in the comments below?