Hey everyone, If you're new to my channel, I'd like to thank you for taking a chance on a channel like mine with a small subscriber base. I know that a humble sub count is a bit of a red flag, but if you've scrolled down this far I've hopefully managed to hook you! To my wonderful subscribers, thanks for being patient with me. It took me about 35 hours of writing/recording/editing to put this one together; I hope it was worth the wait! Reading your comments is what makes the process worthwhile. I'm at a point where I feel confident enough in my videos to start more aggressively promoting them across platforms. If you've come across this comment, would you mind leaving a reply letting me know how you came across my tiny channel in the first place? Just call me Colress because I'll be analyzing your feedback to help me reach a wider audience. And of course, if you could share my content with others who you feel might be interested I'd really appreciate it! Thanks everyone!
Super late to reply, but I saw your comment on Jrose’s Mewtwo run about how you’d just done one, and I decided to check out your channel. When I noticed you had like 100 subscribers I was *amazed* because it’s seriously quality content and absolutely up to par with other channels in production value. PS. Since Jrose did a run with the (unevolved) starters asking roughly the same question as you did in this video, how applicable do you think his experience was to your rankings?
No no, thank you for taking the time to reply! I think most will agree that it's tacky to promote on other channels, so I try my best not to, but the upload timing just worked out too perfectly to pass up. Thank you for giving me a chance! As for JRose's starter rankings affecting this video, I'd say they had marginal influence, if any. Being able to evolve changes a lot, especially for Charmander where he (unfortunately) gains a flying type. This video also considers that you can always bail yourself out by using a different Pokemon, which is very different from a solo run where your only choice is to either figure out some clever workaround, or just give up.
@@ImportedCheese Haha yeah, that must have been pretty funny when you saw it. Thank you for sparing me your attention even though I’m just one of thousands of viewers, and for taking the time to engage with so many comments! Your channel deserves way more subs, but being able to engage with the creator is really a plus too. You’re totally right; I guess being able to switch avoids the “you’re only as good as your worst fight” scenario (like with Jrose’s Charmander being slowed down by an hour+ because it just can’t beat Lance’s Gyarados) and you don’t have to rely on setup as much when you’re fully evolved and your stats are on par/superior to your opponents’ (which helps Blastoise a lot)
Just to add something to your analysis of Bulbasaur: Lance's dragon types are actually useless against it, since they'll just keep spamming Agility and Barrier
You're absolutely right! I mentioned the "good" AI with Erika, but Lance's buffoonery completely slipped my mind. How could I forget, especially since ATV the Venomoth's legendary victory against Lance in Twitch Plays Pokemon was only possible because of Agility/Barrier spam? For shame.
Who remembers the legendary level 37 All Terrain Venomoth from Twitch plays Pokemon? the weakest member on their team, and by using poison powder, they where able to defeat Dragonite, since Lances AI said "Barrier is psychic type. Agility is psychic type. psychic type is super effective against poison type. lets spam Barrier and agility because they are psychic type moves!"
Add in Toxic-Leech Seed, which literally gives your opponent three turns while you sit down, heal off them with the Toxic counter buildup, and use Growth for stat boosts (or play the flute to preserve PP... "Now that's a catchy tune!"), and Bulbasaur is technically the only starter line in the entire series that can actually stall-tank dangerously (I'm so sorry Chikorita).
But Blastoise it’s a turtle with canons it has CANONS HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT A WATER CUTER CAN DO IT CAN CUT METAL IN HALF EASALY IMAGINE WHAT IT CAN DO TO FLESH
You can cheese Lance easyli with Venusaur by abusing two glitches. The first glitch makes the AI think that the Psychic-type Agility will be effective against Venusaur's Poison-type, so his dragons will always spam Agility against Venusaur. The second glitch is the Toxic-Leech Seed combo
@@ImportedCheese I simply use Dugtrio for that, lol (Earthquake, Fissure, Rock Slide for Golbat) (¬‿¬). I use a Special Gyrados for Lorelei (Thunderbolt, Fire Blast for Jynx). Venusaur roasts Bruno just with Razor Leaf. By the way, I'm playing Red with Hardcore Nuzlocke rules right now, and it's still too easy. I even could cheese Erika with my Beedrill alone 'cause Twin Needle is effective against Poison-types
Adding something: Eggecutor’s line and venusaur’s line have access to an obscure glitch: toxic and leech seed use the same damage calculator. Since these two Pokémon are the only ones that learn both moves, leech seed will inherit toxic’s snowball mechanic, which means that whatever damage toxic is at, leech seed has the same
Also the life you get back from the snowballed leech seed will always be calculated by the toxic multiplier rather than actual damage dealt by the LS. Example: toxic hits for 25% damage, bringing them down to 1 HP. LS triggers next, killing the opp, dealing 1 damage. However, instead of just getting 1 HP, you will get the full 25% HP regeneration on you active pokemon.
Well considering razor leaf has a 100% crit rate and he learns growth, sleep powder and leech seed....razor leaf is actually better than both. Although crits bypass stat increases with growth, and you can replace razor leaf with mega drain mid to late game and solo everything
@@Twigs_20 in gen 1 yeah lol. But only for venusaur, not bulbasaur because his base speed is slightly too low. Bulbasaur crits at like 50% with razor leaf, ivysaur around 75% and 100% with venusaur
Imported Cheese: You can slowly stall out opponents with fancy tactics, or you can flamethrower and win. Blissey, a go-to competitive staple: And I took that personally
@@chonchjohnch This video is about the starters, but if it was all Kanto Pokemon then yes it would be Nidoran. This is the criteria he gives near the beginning of the video
@@johannesboomsma4680 before they discovered the Nidoking route Squirtle was used. In fact for a while there was debate about which was actually faster. I wanna say one was preferred for blue and one was preferred for red because male nidoran is more common in one of the games, but then they discovered rng manipulation so it didn't matter any more
Absolutely fantastic intro. Also, minor correction: at 19:47 you say that gen 1 rock throw has 70% accuracy, but it's actually slightly worse than that with a measly 65% chance of hitting.
Thank you so much! The intro took a good few hours, I'm glad it landed. Ah...thanks for the correction. Let's just say that Gen 1 Rock Throw is so horrific, that I couldn't bring myself to speak its true accuracy. That's also totally the reason why I thought Charizard got Wing Attack in Gen 1, yeah, not an excuse or anything...!
Bulbasaur easily wrecks most of the gym leaders by virtue of it's typing alone. On top of that, it can abuse the most Gen 1 glitches. Super easy crits, laughable "super-effective" AI, Toxic + Leech Seed Shenanigans, etc.
When I was a kid, i chose Charmander. When I was a teenager, i chose Squirtle. Now, as an adult, I choose Bulbasaur. Actually, I've always chose Bulbasaur, my froggy boy's the best !!!!
@@chadzard4 I agree. But it's still really good albeit mediocre. The problem wasn't the competition. In gen 1. Blastoise's movepool was quite bad. It does not learn swords dance that it's brethren use. And it does not have much coverage.
@@chadzard4 There's also a better Fire-type in Gen 1 than Charizard: Arcanine. Fire is garbage in Gen 1, anyway. The only thing you "need" a Fire-type for is Erika's Gym, and even then, A Fearow with Drill Peck solos it just fine. You are in no position to talk about there being better Pokémon of the same type as a starter. That 3/10 is well-deserved.
Razor leaf with 100% crit rate, sleep powder, growth increases both special attack and defense in gen 1, leech seed, sleep powder, mega drain powered up by growth, and absolutely demolishing the first half of the games gyms makes bulbasaur utterly broken in gen 1. I've soloed the entire game with venusaur with literally no grinding when I was like 8-9 years old, and I didn't even have the understanding about all these gen 1 mechanics back then.
Yeah, it’s so good. It gets STAB Hyper Fang at like Lv. 14 or something stupid like that so even before you reach the SS Anne you are gonna be doing so much damage.
in every single one of my yellow version playthroughs i use NIDOKING!! If anything, Nidoran male should be treated as the yellow version starter pokemon. though Mankey and Nidoran female are also options.
Pokemon Yellow was my first game and I remember that I always caught Mankey, evolved him, and sweeped through the entire game with him, completely ignoring my Pikachu, Pika really was just terrible.
I'm impressed. I hate charizard and love venusaur, but I've found someone who simps on charmander like I do Bulbasaur. You earn a sub. Also good video by the way.
Thanks for watching! I will always defend Charizard...I am on the side of GameFreak. They will continue to push Charizard until only Charizard fans remain.
In the context of a full team, I agree, especially because a lot of Nidoking's power is locked behind TMs, which Blastoise would need to steal from him, whereas all Venusaur needs to BRRRRRRRRRRRRR is his level-up movepool.
@@XGame80 It's kinda slow and obtained pretty late. Not to mention Exeggcute for the point in the game you get it is pretty bad and you'd want to grind to get the good moves before evolving which becomes a bit of a chore. It does have the advantage of not being slowed down by Agatha as far as type coverage goes though so it has that but you know, the Agatha lottery.
Yeah, spoilers that will surprise no one but Chikorita is getting a 1/10 lmao, probably the worst starter in Pokemon history (aside from...Snivy? I think Snivy is actually much better, but he's also in a far more difficult game.) Speaking purely in terms of ingame performance, of course, I love Meganium's little antennae things. To be fair, any Grass starter would fare poorly in Johto; Gamefreak really wanted to troll kids who thought Grass would also be the Gen 2 easy mode.
@@ImportedCheese Well to be fair, the 3rd and 4th gym, along with the Ice-type gym surprisingly, are pretty easy with Chiko line up. Clair also has a Kingdra and the Fighting-type gym Poliwrath. Ones that people have complained about, Whitney and Morty, with the recovery and all, aren't too bad.
@@ImportedCheese Snivy is in the bad game, relatively weak, but after you find a way to get a hidden ability and bring that Contrary Leaf storm in... Wow
Great job striking a beautiful balance of comedy and information I found this video really interesting and funny Do you plan on making similar comparisons for future gens? Also small sidenote - I think one additional thing that might be worth discussing is comparing the starter to other pokemon of that type available in the game. While squirtle is better than bulbasaur when comparing them directly or if only using starters, there are much better water types than blastoise later in the game, such as starmie, while venusaur is the best grass type in gen 1
Hey, thank you for the kind words! I do plan to do the other gens, though I imagine the videos will be shorter in length since there aren't as many wonky mechanics that need to be explained. Good point about comparing the viability of the starters to other pokemon of their types - I might mention it, but I think these vids might be under the assumption that you're just pumping your starter full of as much XP as possible and steamrolling the game. A lv 50 Starmie wallops a lv 50 Blastoise, but a lv 50 Starmie against a lv 80 Blatsoise goes in our slow boi's favor.
Honestly both Venusaur and Blastoise are SUPER good in gen 1. I think I’d lean more towards Venusaur since imo it’s the best grass type in the game and almost every water type in kanto is great (special shout-out to starmie and slowbro for also being psychic types). If you’re gonna be over reliant on your starter though blastoise is probably better though.
I'd say Gen 1 Blizzard edges out Ice Beam...130 base power with 90% accuracy, absurd. And a 10% chance to OHKO since freeze lasts forever, who let this in the game lol
Yea Blastoise it’s a turtle with canons it has CANONS HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT A WATER CUTER CAN DO IT CAN CUT METAL IN HALF EASALY IMAGINE WHAT IT CAN DO TO FLESH
I love how bulbasaur is set up to abuse the games code lol. You get the auto crits, you get the badge boosts, you get the toxic and leech seed combo, it’s a great time
Bulbasaur was my first starter since I had the game with the whole handbook and read the gist of the game and figured out with my 9 y/o brain that Bulbasaur has advantage to several gyms
bulbasaur is the most overhyped pokemon of all time, can't go anywhere without someone mewling about how UNDERRATED and OVERLOOKED it is, I'm SICK OF IT
right sure thing, over 98% of the population back in the day for years would not say anything good about it, and then peeps like you excist to this day sprounting random bs.@@ImportedCheese
Thank you! This is probably the video that took the most editing hours to put together, which is why I'm a bit nervous to start on the Gen 2 version xD
"we're going to be ranking them based on stats and matchups" "this is all subjective" good to see we have two statements that go against each other before it even starts
People tend to forget a big part of the game; Trainers. As the first part of the Trainers have flying-, bug- or poison-type Pokemon, Bulbasaur is pretty tedious to play with. Especially when most of them outspeed him, you'll visit the Pokémon Center a lot. Unlike Brock and Misty show so. Charmander blows through the game like a breeze. Same for Squirtle, but resists Trainers way better than Bulbasaur.
They aren't type specialists though, so they don't count for a what is the best starter in a playthrough. Like, to deal with trainers that have bugs early on, you can catch a Flying type early on, not to speak about Bug being a shitty typing, since their weren't even any offensive bug moves (The only one was Twineelde on Beedrill and Leech Life could only be learned by Paras/Parasect and other non-bugs + it was only a 20 power move at the time as well, so pretty useless). Poison types only had acces to Poison Sting early on. Flying types had acces to Gust, but that wasn't even a Flying type move in gen 1.
@@franksony1992 Going with just the starter seems kinda arbitrary and wrong, honestly. It'd be wrong to sit there and go "Wartortle bad bcuz can't solo Lt.Surge." like, ok, but the matches where you'll face even some challenge is what we are looking at, bug catcher #5 or rocket #4 really aren't a challenge planning is needed for at all. Besides, as far as those bug catchers early on go, some pack poison sting weedle, not getting poisoned saves a lot of headache, and the starters take a bit into it to get their first elemental attacks.
Personally I think the fact that Squirtle remains a pure water type needs to be factored in a bit more. Despite Venusaur not being able to use many poison moves or Charizard not getting any flying moves, at least the dual typing helps offer some defensive advantages. Water is a good typing, but I think that Squirtle should have gotten a dual type like the other 2 pokemon.
No one cares that I’m commenting on an old video, it was in my recommended video feed. In gen 1, if we are talking about Pokémon that are good to get through the game, then bulbasaur, in gen 1 it can use growth to take advantage of the badge boost glitch so it can reck everything. Yet, if we are ranking them by themselves then squirtle is best, it can learn ice moves which are super against bulbasaur, yet it’s also a water type so bye charmander. I like squirtle the most so 😂
Hey, I care that you're commenting! Charizard is the best. I know I made a 30 minute long video that concludes that Charizard is very much not the best, but it's all just uh, propaganda, Charizard is the best!!
Venasaur is definitely a threat in the last Battle with razor leaf. You gotta be like 10 levels over for Ice Beam to Okho. Same with Erika if you try to fight her at even level. Likewise I would say Koga's Pokemon can easily take a Dig and it's not just an open/shut Battle.
This brings me back to a time when I didn't know fainted pokemon could still use HM moves. Had Wartortle who got roasted by Surge. Exit gym. See tree. Oh no.... I'm trapped forever! Welp, guess I have no choice but to restart the entire game and pick Charmander this time. 12/10 no regrets
I think you could argue it both ways. Having a strong early-game starter like Bulbasaur means you're free to use whatever pokemon you'd like without crippling youself. But a weak early-game starter like Charmander FORCES you to teambuild, or else you'll never get past Misty. Who picks Squirtle lmaoooo
@@ImportedCheese I always use bulbasaur as a status mon in firered, I find it does better with toxic and leech seed while leaving the heavy lifting to other moms
@@ImportedCheese You can get past her with a bit of luck or grind until you can 2HKO her Starmie but yeah, leaning on just Charmander will give you a hard time with Misty. Bulbasaur is good for more than just early-game stuff too. It gets Sleep Powder which is really nice because of how strong gen 1 sleep is, not to mention for catching the hard stuff. You may wanna get it before evolving into Venusaur though since if I remember correctly, Venusaur gets it pretty late.
@@ImportedCheese Lol, who picks Charmander? If you think you "need" a Fire-type, just get a Growlithe right outside Celadon. Celadon is the only place where Fire is even somewhat useful since the Grass Gym is there, and Arcanine has better stats than Charizard. _Way_ better stats. But even then, you can just sweep the whole Grass Gym with a Fearow with Drill Peck. It's almost as if Fire is useless in Gen 1!
@@ImportedCheese either way. The algorithm has blessed me with your channel. And the algorithm has blessed you with a view, and a new subscriber. Much love _\- -/ And I appreciate the honesty.
Swords dance, Earthquake, Body Slam, Rock Slide and Chari just takes everything. 1 swords dance will one-shot everyone on the first 3 elite four with EQ.
I agree on Bruno/Agatha, but Lorelei uses three beefy bois (Cloyster, Slowbro, Lapras) who can all take a +2 hit and retaliate. You could always Swords Dance multiple times, but then you need to hope that you don't hit the 20% chance to crit, negating your own boosts.
Zard also doesn't get Rock Slide in gen 1. Only way you can get it is Gen 2 trade-backs since it's an Egg move from there. Yeah, that's why teambuilding is important. Unless you're overlevelled, he will struggle a bit in unfavourable match-ups.
I know that Pikachu as a starter sucks but in a red or blue playthrough, Pikachu/Raichu would be the only electric I would consider using in a playthrough, due to the fact it gets surf. For the actual topic I would use Venusar due to having the best design, Double stab and always crit razor leafs.
Honestly, I'm not sure even Surf is enough to redeem Pikachu, its stats are just...unforgiveable. Really cute, though! My favorite Gen 1 electric type is probably Eevee, just hop over to the department store, pick up a thunderstone, and start blastin'.
@@ImportedCheese I was talking about using Pikachu/Raichu in a normal playthrough by itself it's awful. Jolteon unfortunately has the issue of I've only got electric and normal type moves meaning it can't get past any ground types (funny enough this issue still stays with Jolteon even nowdays now that HP ice got snapped).
Ah, my mistake. Jolteon can actually get both Double Kick and Pin Missile, which can at least affect ground types, but you should probably just switch out >.> I think modern Pikachu has access to Grass Knot, which is pretty nifty.
@@ImportedCheese Pikachu can't get Surf without Stadium or glitches in gen 1. I usually ditch it in Yellow once it's done its job of beating Misty. I can do without until I pick up Jolteon or Zapdos since you don't miss out on much without an Electric at that point in the game. Zapdos also kinda destroys Sabrina with just Drill Peck. Jolteon's attack is also kinda pretty bad but gen 1 crits make its physical movepool sort of viable. It can do more than Zapdos to the Rock/Ground types that wall him but its bulk is paper. Modern Pikachu also does get Grass Knot.
Great video and about Charamander being hard mode is very true. The difficulty I faced as a child facing Brock and Misty were unmatched in the whole run till I reached Lance (even though the Lance fight was made trivial by overleveling) Probably the long time I had to level up Charamander and its line made me like Charizard so much that its my favorite starter, even though I feel Swampert and Typholsion are much better in their respective regions.
Thanks for watching! It's nice to find kindred spirits who know the struggle of being a Charmander player. Charizard is much stronger in the remakes (with a better movepool, buffs to fire type, and buffs to its special attack) but I will agree that Typhlosion and Swampert both perform better in their vanilla releases, especially Swampert. I haven't thought much about Gen 3 yet, but I'm pretty sure Swampert is getting a 9/10, it's one of the best starters of all time.
@@ImportedCheese Indeed, the change for Charizard was a welcome one. Swampert is great even in the remake imo, but Typhlosion has a close challenger in the remakes because Feraligatr can learn Ice fang, which is a game changer vs Claire and Lance. But Leveling up the red Gyarados or making the Piloswine your party members as Typholsion is better imo
@@bitthalranjit I really wish Typhlosion had more unique traits to help it step out of Charizard's shadow, as if getting a copy-paste of Charizard's stats wasn't bad enough. It gets Eruption, which can be a cute gimmick, but without a mega or a crazy alternate ability like Drought I don't see the Typhlosion fanbase growing =(
@@ImportedCheese Even though the fanbase may not grow, we can take heart in the fact that it is the best starter in its region. Though a mega evolution/ a good gimmicky move would help. Lets hope it gets a regional form that is good. That's the only way I see Typhlosion being more popular.
@@bitthalranjit While Typhlosion is my favorite of the Johto starters, I think I may be giving the edge to Feraligatr in vanilla G/S. The very first video I made for this channel, a minimum battle run of Gold, relies on the broken Gen 2 incarnation of Rage, which only the Tododile line can use. I'd love a regional form for Typhlosion, although please not another regional ice type... Also, Typhlosion's Japanese name is hilarious, it's pronounced "Bag-hoon," which sounds like it's got a burning passion for collecting handbags and purses.
If you're here for the puns, might I recommend my Gen 1 "Egg" move run? It's basically a half an hour of aggressive egg / food puns with a pokemon game in the background, I guess. Behold! th-cam.com/video/qQt64Js49-g/w-d-xo.html
Actually, Lance suffers from Peanut Brain AI and a level 1 ekans can beat his Dragonite and 2 Dragonairs with ease. He'll only use Agility and Barrier, nothing else. Venusaur is actually only vulnerable to his gyarados's hyper beam, but it shouldn't 1 shot you, so the fight should be trivial.
Fury cutter doubles it's power every time it's used in succession paired with something like a wide lens it's really scary lol Arguably better than rollout for trying to set up sweeps
I just did a playthrough of Red/Blue with each starter, and I'd like to put in a word for our lovely little lizard Charmander. I concede that Brock is a pretty tough fight, but I don't think it's as hard as you're making it out to be. You don't even need to evolve to beat him; just battling all the trainers you come across is almost sufficient. I won at level 13, without switching, on my second try for example. (Past that you can either do like 1 level of grinding or just switch when in trouble). So while it's definitely the only starter to struggle vs Brock, "struggle" in this case means like... 5 extra minutes. I agree that on paper, Misty is an even worse matchup. *However,* the crucial thing is that you don't actually have to fight Misty until wayyyy later; you can fight Rival 2, go to Vermillion, get a bunch of OP moves (Body Slam and Dig), and *then* come back to Misty. By that point you're evolved and way overleveled (high 20's) and can 2HKO everything with Dig, or even use Bide if you feel like it. So while the early game is definitely the hardest for Charmander, I don't think it's as much of a factor as you're making it out to be. If you actually know what you're doing, it costs you like 15 minutes total, max. Nor should Charmander's strengths be underestimated. Being so fast means it's the only starter that consistently outspeeds Alakazam, and don't forget that it has the best physical move of the trio (Slash) to deal with it too. Given Alakazam is so OP in Gen 1, being able to outspeed and probably OHKO Alakazam is worth a lot. It also has an easier time with Agatha's Gengar, again courtesy of higher speed. Its movepool in general is also just great, like it has a *bit* less coverage than Blastoise, but it has stronger STAB (Fire Blast) and Slash really is OP. Admittedly, it struggles against anything with Hydro Pump (whereas Blastoise at least has Blizzard for Venusaur, though that's not actually a clean OHKO most of the time, mind you; it's an issue with Erika too, as most Grass types have strong Specials), and Lorelei is scary too, but that's where your teammates come in. Not to mention it gets a fantastic boosting move in Swords Dance, which Blastoise doesn't get. In contrast, while Venusaur does get Razor Leaf, its coverage is squat (ONLY Grass and Normal... yikes), and Razor Leaf is actually comparable to Surf and Fire Blast in power (110 vs 95 and 120, respectively, and though it has better accuracy than the latter, it's also Grass type which is worse). You did mention in the video that Venusaur struggles late-game, but the magnitude to which it does should be recognized: late game struggles take a *lot* more grinding than early game struggles. Also, when I was using Bulbasaur I actually had quite some trouble with some early game trainers; it's not as bad as Charmander, but it's still notable. Leech seed and Vine Whip are great against the early gyms, but Bulbasaur is slow and weak on the physical end, and it only gets Vine Whip at level 13, so it's comparatively weaker against poison and normal types. So Venusaur, while great early game, isn't the clean sweep it's made out to be. I do think Blastoise is still the best of the starters, but I think Charmander deserves at least a 6/10, probably even 7/10. It's got a good matchup against everything bar water types (which are genuinely scary) and the early game (which isn't so bad). Bulbasaur is maybe a 5/10 and Blastoise an 8/10. So concludes my way too long analysis haha, and thank you if you actually got this far!
I was maaaaybe a little harsh on Charmander, but it's only because I love him! Also in a new video I'm working on, I fed every possible drop of XP to Charmander and STILL got bodied on Misty, so he really is a liability for the first two gyms.
Hey, the B-roll footage from the "A Button Only!" run was what I had on hand, all right >.> I was also hoping that people wouldn't be able to read it and catch on to my antics...ya got me.
Haven't watched the video yet,but love squirtle it gets shell smash (or atleast blastoise) coverage for grass types with ice beam and overall a pretty good movepool with identical atk and sp.atk making it unpredictable,also water is easily one of the top 4 typings out there,along with Dragon,Fairy&Steel
afaik, I traded my Pokemon Yellow Pikachu to my Red version, evolved it, and traded it back. Yeah, it lost all the interation bits, but I mean, I had a Raichu.
Depends really. The best all around starter would have to go to Charizard. But for first time players Bulbasaur because the first 4 gyms Bulbasaur is super effective or resistant against. Squirtle voids the grass weakness because it can learn ice attacks leaving really 1 weakness to electric. Squirtle has the least weaknesses especially for the time period. Grass and Electric, but as I stated water types can learn Ice moves. Bulbasaur has too many weaknesses: Fire, Flying, Poison, Psychic, Ground, Ice and Bug. Charizard just needs to avoid rock slide since it's 4x weak against, but it's attack power and speed can one shot many things.
"Good chance they can't even read" Pokemon taught me to read at an early age. Constantly asking my parents what this word was, how to say that word or what levels meant and them just helping me understand what's going on even if they didn't know (thought level was the pokemon's age for a while)
@@ImportedCheese i knew it, gamefreak loved charizard since the very beginning. *honestly i never was a fan of charizard and i havent used one in about 12 years*
@@sleprvrru6y-lin-92 I mean, I've been a hardcore Charizard fanboy, but once I found out how mediocre he was my fanaticism definitely died down. Good thing both his megas are fantastic! What's that? Megas are gone? Uh...dragons! Fire! (Gamefreak pls bring back megas...if you truly do wish to milk us fanboys...)
The charizard megas were definitely busted, maybe they're just hiding megas from us because they're turning all existing megas into charizard megas. Wait its all charizard? *it always has been* Ever since stealth rock appeared i figured out that he wasnt the best - Moltres exists and does everything charizard wants to but better
@@sleprvrru6y-lin-92 I'm pretty sure their endgame is to give every pokemon an alternate Charizard form, it would be in like with their policy thus far. Hey, Charizard is 10 points of speed faster than Moltres! And...it gets Belly Drum! And...uh....it looks cooler...?
I chose Squirtle just because blue is my favorite color. Blue version was my first Pokémon game, and I quickly fell in love with the Water-type. Ever since, I've always built a team around the Water starter. I know it sounds stupid, but once Hydro Cannon became a thing, I became obsessed with the move, trying everything under the sun to make it work (unless the Water starter has a signature move, I always give Special-based Water starters Hydro Cannon and Substitute). I have two brothers who always play the same generation with me around the same time, one of them always picks Grass (because green is his favorite color) and the other always picks Fire (his favorite color isn't red he just likes fire.) So, even if I stopped liking Water, I can't stop picking it because I'd end up stepping on someone else's toes. (I don't care that Scovillain has garbage stats, btw. I'm just happy I can use only 2 Pokémon to cover Water, Fire, and Grass instead of 3 (like how the Fire brother will always stick a Ludicolo on his team if he can)).
@@ImportedCheese That's what Substitute is for: being shielded on the recharge turn so my starter doesn't faint. I'm not committing the sin of taking damage if I'm behind a sub. Plus, since I like having fun above all else, I play on switch mode, so if something that _can_ break the sub is coming out, I can just switch to something that can deal with it _before_ it can do anything.
Grass was so overpowered in gen 1 that GameFreak had to nerf it, and poor Bulbasaur, Vileplume, and Victreebell couldn't recover ever since. Also, Pikachu is straight-up awful. Have no idea why he's the mascot rather than Clefairy, Eevee, or literally anyone else.
I have no idea why they gave Grass five weaknesses...meanwhile Fire types have the most resistances behind Steel wtf. But hey, at least Grass types are now immune to powder moves, and you can't spell powder without P O W E R! ...I think Clefairy was originally planned to be the mascot, but it ended up becoming Pikachu for some reason. Oof.
@@ImportedCheese Yeah, I know. What's funny is Jiggly and Clefairy got pretty good buffs starting with Gen 6, while Pikachu remained… Pikachu. He got what, Nuzzle?
I randomly started replaying Yellow. Pikachu was regulated to meatshield the instant I caught Nidoran, and went into the box forever when I got to Celadon.
Hey everyone,
If you're new to my channel, I'd like to thank you for taking a chance on a channel like mine with a small subscriber base. I know that a humble sub count is a bit of a red flag, but if you've scrolled down this far I've hopefully managed to hook you!
To my wonderful subscribers, thanks for being patient with me. It took me about 35 hours of writing/recording/editing to put this one together; I hope it was worth the wait! Reading your comments is what makes the process worthwhile.
I'm at a point where I feel confident enough in my videos to start more aggressively promoting them across platforms.
If you've come across this comment, would you mind leaving a reply letting me know how you came across my tiny channel in the first place? Just call me Colress because I'll be analyzing your feedback to help me reach a wider audience.
And of course, if you could share my content with others who you feel might be interested I'd really appreciate it!
Thanks everyone!
i think i was watching a jrose solo run and saw your spamming the A button run, and every videos been amazing since!
I first saw the eggcellent Exeggcute run on a Reddit post and thought it was great, so I kept watching!
Super late to reply, but I saw your comment on Jrose’s Mewtwo run about how you’d just done one, and I decided to check out your channel. When I noticed you had like 100 subscribers I was *amazed* because it’s seriously quality content and absolutely up to par with other channels in production value.
PS. Since Jrose did a run with the (unevolved) starters asking roughly the same question as you did in this video, how applicable do you think his experience was to your rankings?
No no, thank you for taking the time to reply! I think most will agree that it's tacky to promote on other channels, so I try my best not to, but the upload timing just worked out too perfectly to pass up. Thank you for giving me a chance!
As for JRose's starter rankings affecting this video, I'd say they had marginal influence, if any. Being able to evolve changes a lot, especially for Charmander where he (unfortunately) gains a flying type. This video also considers that you can always bail yourself out by using a different Pokemon, which is very different from a solo run where your only choice is to either figure out some clever workaround, or just give up.
@@ImportedCheese Haha yeah, that must have been pretty funny when you saw it. Thank you for sparing me your attention even though I’m just one of thousands of viewers, and for taking the time to engage with so many comments! Your channel deserves way more subs, but being able to engage with the creator is really a plus too.
You’re totally right; I guess being able to switch avoids the “you’re only as good as your worst fight” scenario (like with Jrose’s Charmander being slowed down by an hour+ because it just can’t beat Lance’s Gyarados) and you don’t have to rely on setup as much when you’re fully evolved and your stats are on par/superior to your opponents’ (which helps Blastoise a lot)
Just to add something to your analysis of Bulbasaur: Lance's dragon types are actually useless against it, since they'll just keep spamming Agility and Barrier
You're absolutely right! I mentioned the "good" AI with Erika, but Lance's buffoonery completely slipped my mind.
How could I forget, especially since ATV the Venomoth's legendary victory against Lance in Twitch Plays Pokemon was only possible because of Agility/Barrier spam? For shame.
But only gen1 kanto.
Who remembers the legendary level 37 All Terrain Venomoth from Twitch plays Pokemon?
the weakest member on their team, and by using poison powder, they where able to defeat Dragonite, since Lances AI said "Barrier is psychic type. Agility is psychic type. psychic type is super effective against poison type. lets spam Barrier and agility because they are psychic type moves!"
This is a fact.
Add in Toxic-Leech Seed, which literally gives your opponent three turns while you sit down, heal off them with the Toxic counter buildup, and use Growth for stat boosts (or play the flute to preserve PP... "Now that's a catchy tune!"), and Bulbasaur is technically the only starter line in the entire series that can actually stall-tank dangerously (I'm so sorry Chikorita).
How Game Freak sees this video: "Green Charizard, Regular Charizard or Blue Charizard, which one is THE Charizard?"
Masuda, is that you...?
Good joke. Charizard is popular, but this is too much. I hope that none of the starters will ever become the second pikachu again
Wait it's all Charizard?
Always has been
>_> Didn't they add the other two starters in SwSh and give them Gigantimaxes as well? Yes, it was an update, but still.
@@MegaDude10 yes, it was dlc, but still
Imagine an alternative world where game freak idolized bulbasaur instead of charazard.
Psh, who would ever shill for a salad lizard over a D R A G O N?
@@ImportedCheese sure a dragon is cool but so is lazer flower
@@ImportedCheese hehe charizard is fire/flying
But Blastoise it’s a turtle with canons it has CANONS HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT A WATER CUTER CAN DO IT CAN CUT METAL IN HALF EASALY IMAGINE WHAT IT CAN DO TO FLESH
@Aquatic Typhoon Venusaur: * pulls out a bendy straw *
Bulbasaur. No matter how many Pokemon are created, he'll always be #001
You're not exactly wrong and i hate that
A single manly sweat rolled down on my face.
Robbie Rotten will always be my number 1. :(
Rest in Piece Stefán Karl Stefánsson
Eh, 007 is a better number >:)
unless you use the Kalos regional dex where he is #080 :^)
You can cheese Lance easyli with Venusaur by abusing two glitches. The first glitch makes the AI think that the Psychic-type Agility will be effective against Venusaur's Poison-type, so his dragons will always spam Agility against Venusaur. The second glitch is the Toxic-Leech Seed combo
That's true! It certainly helps Venusaur overall - the big wall is still Agatha and her ghosts, I'd say.
@@ImportedCheese I simply use Dugtrio for that, lol (Earthquake, Fissure, Rock Slide for Golbat) (¬‿¬). I use a Special Gyrados for Lorelei (Thunderbolt, Fire Blast for Jynx). Venusaur roasts Bruno just with Razor Leaf. By the way, I'm playing Red with Hardcore Nuzlocke rules right now, and it's still too easy. I even could cheese Erika with my Beedrill alone 'cause Twin Needle is effective against Poison-types
Hey that’s atv’s signature ability stall some poison turns until dragonite goes down
@@Kyouma. try radical red😏
I mean sure, but you can also just use the Lapras you got for free.
Adding something: Eggecutor’s line and venusaur’s line have access to an obscure glitch: toxic and leech seed use the same damage calculator. Since these two Pokémon are the only ones that learn both moves, leech seed will inherit toxic’s snowball mechanic, which means that whatever damage toxic is at, leech seed has the same
That is terrifying and I love it. Does this work today?
@@TheCabalOnMars only in gen 1. In the later games toxic goes off toxic multiplier and leech seed has its own
@@Heattokun well, that's a little bit of a bummer. At least I know how to shred stuff when I go back to gen 1 now! Thx!
Also the life you get back from the snowballed leech seed will always be calculated by the toxic multiplier rather than actual damage dealt by the LS. Example: toxic hits for 25% damage, bringing them down to 1 HP. LS triggers next, killing the opp, dealing 1 damage. However, instead of just getting 1 HP, you will get the full 25% HP regeneration on you active pokemon.
@@tylerdibenedetto2641 also this was a really good anti tank strategy
I always just picked bulbasaur because i liked frogs. I've been looking for a vid like this!
Tbh I picked Charmander because "fire and dragons cool."
I picked squirtle because is a cute turtle and in the final Evo it has cannons water cannons!
I picked bulbasaur because it had giant tree on it's back... Guess who I picked in Gen 4. xd
@@ImportedCheese Same
I picked Squirtle (In FireRed) because I like water better than fire and grass
*throws rocks at a dragon*
Charizard: *dies*
blastoise dies on a leaf 😞
@@mattyh2863 Blastoise freezes said leaf
@@mattyh2863 lol ice beam said HI XD
Venasaur dies by touching dirt
@@pumpkin6192 Grass is strong against ground....
I love how Bulbasaur uses Razor Leaf while Charmander uses Flamethrower and Squirtle uses Surf
Well considering razor leaf has a 100% crit rate and he learns growth, sleep powder and leech seed....razor leaf is actually better than both. Although crits bypass stat increases with growth, and you can replace razor leaf with mega drain mid to late game and solo everything
Razor Leaf has a 100% crit rate?
@@Twigs_20 in gen 1 yeah lol. But only for venusaur, not bulbasaur because his base speed is slightly too low. Bulbasaur crits at like 50% with razor leaf, ivysaur around 75% and 100% with venusaur
@@calvinsimpson1301Mega Drain is like 40bp
Imported Cheese: You can slowly stall out opponents with fancy tactics, or you can flamethrower and win.
Blissey, a go-to competitive staple: And I took that personally
Which uses flamethrower periodically lol
@@BLUEBOYISLEDGE are you really trying to flex pokemon pvp knowledge for no reason? Go back to showdown low ladder chat, I’m tired of this crap
@@BLUEBOYISLEDGE I don't play a lot of competitive, but what's wrong with Blissey? Good special wall, right?
You do realize Blissey didn't exist in Gen 1 right?
Also, Charizard Guaranteed Critical Hit Slashes made fairly short work of Chansey
@@BLUEBOYISLEDGE because it's fun in Gen 1
If the criteria is the one that gets you into the Hall of Fame as fast as possible, we already know it's Squirtle from speed runs
By that logic Nidoran is the best
@@chonchjohnch This video is about the starters, but if it was all Kanto Pokemon then yes it would be Nidoran. This is the criteria he gives near the beginning of the video
@@leetfukk Yeah but squirtle is just used to get through brock really fast, they ditch it immediatly after getting nidoking so yeah
@@johannesboomsma4680 before they discovered the Nidoking route Squirtle was used. In fact for a while there was debate about which was actually faster. I wanna say one was preferred for blue and one was preferred for red because male nidoran is more common in one of the games, but then they discovered rng manipulation so it didn't matter any more
Absolutely fantastic intro.
Also, minor correction: at 19:47 you say that gen 1 rock throw has 70% accuracy, but it's actually slightly worse than that with a measly 65% chance of hitting.
Thank you so much! The intro took a good few hours, I'm glad it landed.
Ah...thanks for the correction. Let's just say that Gen 1 Rock Throw is so horrific, that I couldn't bring myself to speak its true accuracy.
That's also totally the reason why I thought Charizard got Wing Attack in Gen 1, yeah, not an excuse or anything...!
Bruh rock throw in gen 1 has less chance then hitting then focus blast.
Im a shuckle fan and im enraged!!
With 5 base speed it took me months to type this comment
I'm glad you could finally air your thoughts.
I look forward to hearing your next one in a few months!
@@ImportedCheese It took me way less to reply with a trick room but I am a shuckle fan too.
Bulbasaur easily wrecks most of the gym leaders by virtue of it's typing alone. On top of that, it can abuse the most Gen 1 glitches. Super easy crits, laughable "super-effective" AI, Toxic + Leech Seed Shenanigans, etc.
Sooo... Pikachu is your internet explorer to download a real browser
That's being pretty generous to Pikachu, but an apt description. Not even Microsoft Edge smh
But what we forget is if you choose Pikachu you get the other starters for free
Not a good starter, but a semi-decent Electric-type for the early to mid game.
Hey, at least Raichu is actually somewhat good.
@@ZerryBerrytheSpaceRaccoon except you can't evolve your starter pikachu
@@honeyslime7178 I think that's literally the joke in the first place.
When I was a kid, i chose Charmander.
When I was a teenager, i chose Squirtle.
Now, as an adult, I choose Bulbasaur.
Actually, I've always chose Bulbasaur, my froggy boy's the best !!!!
When I was a kid, I chose Charmander.
When I was a teenager, I chose Charmander.
Now, as an adult, I choose Charmander.
Burn, Grass-type heretic.
@@ImportedCheese LMAO, dude, i'll dislike your video!
Lol i'm joking, nice video btw !!! (Keep up the amazing content)
@@XGame80 There are so many better water types than Blastoise in gen 1 lol
@@chadzard4 I agree. But it's still really good albeit mediocre. The problem wasn't the competition. In gen 1. Blastoise's movepool was quite bad. It does not learn swords dance that it's brethren use. And it does not have much coverage.
@@chadzard4 There's also a better Fire-type in Gen 1 than Charizard: Arcanine. Fire is garbage in Gen 1, anyway. The only thing you "need" a Fire-type for is Erika's Gym, and even then, A Fearow with Drill Peck solos it just fine. You are in no position to talk about there being better Pokémon of the same type as a starter. That 3/10 is well-deserved.
he likes erika? no need to hear more **subscribes**
Beautiful, we'll get along well.
Go watch my Pokemon Waifu tier list pls.
@@ImportedCheese sounds like a plan, if Erika is S tier I will sub and worship you
Razor leaf with 100% crit rate, sleep powder, growth increases both special attack and defense in gen 1, leech seed, sleep powder, mega drain powered up by growth, and absolutely demolishing the first half of the games gyms makes bulbasaur utterly broken in gen 1. I've soloed the entire game with venusaur with literally no grinding when I was like 8-9 years old, and I didn't even have the understanding about all these gen 1 mechanics back then.
also you can easily replace blastoise with another great water type and charizard is just bad
Pokemon can only have 4 moves though 🤓
@@onyxthaphonix5784 So what?
@@peanutyoverdrive9235 this isn't an argument. Its a fact. So why don't you keep your goofy mouth shut ok?
@@egekahraman8985 ikr charizard did kinda suck lol i remember i thought fire spin would be a good move worst decision ever
Raticate is also really decent in gen one, body slam+ bubble beam beats any pokémon with 1-2 hits.
Yeah, it’s so good. It gets STAB Hyper Fang at like Lv. 14 or something stupid like that so even before you reach the SS Anne you are gonna be doing so much damage.
In gen 3 it gets guts boosted stab facade, which is pretty good.
Persian does that better
Hyper fang and quick attack and ready
Hyper fang and quick attack and ready
in every single one of my yellow version playthroughs i use NIDOKING!!
If anything, Nidoran male should be treated as the yellow version starter pokemon.
though Mankey and Nidoran female are also options.
You should do this with FRLG because of all the new moves added, better movesets, etc.
Maybe! I'd definitely do vanilla Gen 2 before the FRLG remakes.
@@ImportedCheese legend has it we're still waiting for Gen 2 starter analysis to this day
@@bethany5882 Arceus legends?!
@@bethany5882 he finally made it.
@@RK-cj4oc he did, and he gave my favorite starter the lowest rating be careful what you wish for, I suppose...
Pokemon Yellow was my first game and I remember that I always caught Mankey, evolved him, and sweeped through the entire game with him, completely ignoring my Pikachu, Pika really was just terrible.
You'd think they'd make starter Pikachu extra powerful, but they did the opposite by restricting his evolution wtf
@@ImportedCheese well u can evolve it... by first trading it to blue/red using the stone then trade it back.
Was good for Misty but that's about it. I usually ditch it once it's done its job since there's like 3 electrics better than him in Yellow.
I just throw that electric mouse to the box and catch a king.
I'm impressed. I hate charizard and love venusaur, but I've found someone who simps on charmander like I do Bulbasaur. You earn a sub. Also good video by the way.
Thanks for watching!
I will always defend Charizard...I am on the side of GameFreak. They will continue to push Charizard until only Charizard fans remain.
Same but i love blastoise
Venusaur might be the best as you should just catch a nidoran and evolve it to nidoking. Venusaur covers more of the tings nidoking is weak to.
In the context of a full team, I agree, especially because a lot of Nidoking's power is locked behind TMs, which Blastoise would need to steal from him, whereas all Venusaur needs to BRRRRRRRRRRRRR is his level-up movepool.
@@ImportedCheese Better water types than Blastoise also exist even if you didn't go the Nidoking route.
@@ShiningJudgment666 exeggutor also exists
@@XGame80 It's kinda slow and obtained pretty late. Not to mention Exeggcute for the point in the game you get it is pretty bad and you'd want to grind to get the good moves before evolving which becomes a bit of a chore. It does have the advantage of not being slowed down by Agatha as far as type coverage goes though so it has that but you know, the Agatha lottery.
"johto starters" you hear that? thats the sound of me crying because i know my boi chikorita is gonna get roasted safkalsfa
Yeah, spoilers that will surprise no one but Chikorita is getting a 1/10 lmao, probably the worst starter in Pokemon history (aside from...Snivy? I think Snivy is actually much better, but he's also in a far more difficult game.)
Speaking purely in terms of ingame performance, of course, I love Meganium's little antennae things.
To be fair, any Grass starter would fare poorly in Johto; Gamefreak really wanted to troll kids who thought Grass would also be the Gen 2 easy mode.
radical red:imma build this mans whole career (radical red gave a massive boost to megainium)
@@ImportedCheese Well to be fair, the 3rd and 4th gym, along with the Ice-type gym surprisingly, are pretty easy with Chiko line up. Clair also has a Kingdra and the Fighting-type gym Poliwrath. Ones that people have complained about, Whitney and Morty, with the recovery and all, aren't too bad.
@@ImportedCheese Snivy is in the bad game, relatively weak, but after you find a way to get a hidden ability and bring that Contrary Leaf storm in... Wow
@@ImportedCheese Wouldn't Pikachu still rate lower than Chikorita?
Great job striking a beautiful balance of comedy and information I found this video really interesting and funny
Do you plan on making similar comparisons for future gens?
Also small sidenote - I think one additional thing that might be worth discussing is comparing the starter to other pokemon of that type available in the game. While squirtle is better than bulbasaur when comparing them directly or if only using starters, there are much better water types than blastoise later in the game, such as starmie, while venusaur is the best grass type in gen 1
Hey, thank you for the kind words!
I do plan to do the other gens, though I imagine the videos will be shorter in length since there aren't as many wonky mechanics that need to be explained.
Good point about comparing the viability of the starters to other pokemon of their types - I might mention it, but I think these vids might be under the assumption that you're just pumping your starter full of as much XP as possible and steamrolling the game. A lv 50 Starmie wallops a lv 50 Blastoise, but a lv 50 Starmie against a lv 80 Blatsoise goes in our slow boi's favor.
Honestly both Venusaur and Blastoise are SUPER good in gen 1. I think I’d lean more towards Venusaur since imo it’s the best grass type in the game and almost every water type in kanto is great (special shout-out to starmie and slowbro for also being psychic types). If you’re gonna be over reliant on your starter though blastoise is probably better though.
Squirtle is my favorite one. He can learn powerful physical moves and Ice Beam. Ice Beam is probably the best attack in the game along with Psychic.
I'd say Gen 1 Blizzard edges out Ice Beam...130 base power with 90% accuracy, absurd. And a 10% chance to OHKO since freeze lasts forever, who let this in the game lol
@@ImportedCheese Yeah, and in Pokemon Green it was 30% freeze chance :0
Squirtle’s my favorite too. Plus, he has Dig and Earthquake to beat out Electric types
Yea Blastoise it’s a turtle with canons it has CANONS HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT A WATER CUTER CAN DO IT CAN CUT METAL IN HALF EASALY IMAGINE WHAT IT CAN DO TO FLESH
Haha haha wartortle god
“Imported cheese” that has to be the best account name ive ever seen
I subscribed for the name alone.
I love how bulbasaur is set up to abuse the games code lol. You get the auto crits, you get the badge boosts, you get the toxic and leech seed combo, it’s a great time
I think he's also instrumental in the Brock Through Walls glitch that's used in actual speedruns of the game...?
Werster had a pretty good describtion of Pikachu in one of his yellow speedruns, absolutely tore it to shreds.
Pikachu bad.
The Thumbnail says it all - no further comment until Gen6 and Mega-Evos came around
Bulbasaur was my first starter since I had the game with the whole handbook and read the gist of the game and figured out with my 9 y/o brain that Bulbasaur has advantage to several gyms
I want to come earlier than my rival and be a very sneaky person and YOINK all three.
Ash woke up late, which is why he got stuck with loser Pikachu...so if you wake up early, then it would make sense that you'd get all three!
@@ImportedCheeseThe worst part about pikachu is that he refuses to evolve like its unnecesary
recommended blesses me once again
“It gets STAB bonus” 8:14
Ah yes, same type attack bonus bonus.
ATM machine
Like how to this day some people refuse to admit Bulbasaur is a good Gen 1 starter Pokemon and will legit try to start fights over it.
bulbasaur is the most overhyped pokemon of all time, can't go anywhere without someone mewling about how UNDERRATED and OVERLOOKED it is, I'm SICK OF IT
right sure thing, over 98% of the population back in the day for years would not say anything good about it, and then peeps like you excist to this day sprounting random bs.@@ImportedCheese
Little boys pick Charmander cuz "it's a dragon!"
Adults pick Bulbasaur cuz "L A Z E R FROG"
WORTHLESS typing
15:52 your comedy is actually perfect i'm binging these videos
Man, I love your sense of humor!
The incredible effort you've put into this is tangible man, like wowzers what a kickass video.
Thank you! This is probably the video that took the most editing hours to put together, which is why I'm a bit nervous to start on the Gen 2 version xD
@@ImportedCheese Aye, I hear you man. But hey yknow what they say, the Ruins of Alph weren't built in a day.
"we're going to be ranking them based on stats and matchups"
"this is all subjective"
good to see we have two statements that go against each other before it even starts
People tend to forget a big part of the game; Trainers.
As the first part of the Trainers have flying-, bug- or poison-type Pokemon, Bulbasaur is pretty tedious to play with. Especially when most of them outspeed him, you'll visit the Pokémon Center a lot. Unlike Brock and Misty show so.
Charmander blows through the game like a breeze.
Same for Squirtle, but resists Trainers way better than Bulbasaur.
They aren't type specialists though, so they don't count for a what is the best starter in a playthrough.
Like, to deal with trainers that have bugs early on, you can catch a Flying type early on, not to speak about Bug being a shitty typing, since their weren't even any offensive bug moves (The only one was Twineelde on Beedrill and Leech Life could only be learned by Paras/Parasect and other non-bugs + it was only a 20 power move at the time as well, so pretty useless).
Poison types only had acces to Poison Sting early on.
Flying types had acces to Gust, but that wasn't even a Flying type move in gen 1.
@@nickdentoom1173 indeed, but try that with starters only.
@@franksony1992 Going with just the starter seems kinda arbitrary and wrong, honestly. It'd be wrong to sit there and go "Wartortle bad bcuz can't solo Lt.Surge." like, ok, but the matches where you'll face even some challenge is what we are looking at, bug catcher #5 or rocket #4 really aren't a challenge planning is needed for at all. Besides, as far as those bug catchers early on go, some pack poison sting weedle, not getting poisoned saves a lot of headache, and the starters take a bit into it to get their first elemental attacks.
lmao imagine not over-leveling so much that you walk up to misty with a charizard. T-T
Personally I think the fact that Squirtle remains a pure water type needs to be factored in a bit more. Despite Venusaur not being able to use many poison moves or Charizard not getting any flying moves, at least the dual typing helps offer some defensive advantages. Water is a good typing, but I think that Squirtle should have gotten a dual type like the other 2 pokemon.
it would be better if it were a dual type and actually got offensive stab, but defense doesn't really matter past like....the third gym
@@ImportedCheese Love your videos bro
So many of the psychic moves been boosting moves makes Venosaur untouchable.
the amount of times i’ve replayed your videos for sleep aid is crazy
butter smooth voice
yesss a new upload and it’s half an hour long YESSSSS
Thank you for your patronage! Let's! Analyzing!
You can teach submission to blastoise if you want it to take down lorelei faster. It works against her cloyster even.
No one cares that I’m commenting on an old video, it was in my recommended video feed. In gen 1, if we are talking about Pokémon that are good to get through the game, then bulbasaur, in gen 1 it can use growth to take advantage of the badge boost glitch so it can reck everything. Yet, if we are ranking them by themselves then squirtle is best, it can learn ice moves which are super against bulbasaur, yet it’s also a water type so bye charmander. I like squirtle the most so 😂
Hey, I care that you're commenting!
Charizard is the best. I know I made a 30 minute long video that concludes that Charizard is very much not the best, but it's all just uh, propaganda, Charizard is the best!!
You had me at “Greetings, my name is Imported Cheese.”
Easy line to write! It's my name!
Venasaur is definitely a threat in the last Battle with razor leaf. You gotta be like 10 levels over for Ice Beam to Okho. Same with Erika if you try to fight her at even level. Likewise I would say Koga's Pokemon can easily take a Dig and it's not just an open/shut Battle.
it took me 220 years
but i found someone who actually appreciates bulbsaur
It's Squirtle because that's the one I chose and I swear to God, anyone that disagrees will get Hydropumped and not even grass typing will save you.
This brings me back to a time when I didn't know fainted pokemon could still use HM moves. Had Wartortle who got roasted by Surge. Exit gym. See tree. Oh no.... I'm trapped forever! Welp, guess I have no choice but to restart the entire game and pick Charmander this time.
12/10 no regrets
I find that picking bulbasaur Leads me to trying to actually team build
I think you could argue it both ways.
Having a strong early-game starter like Bulbasaur means you're free to use whatever pokemon you'd like without crippling youself.
But a weak early-game starter like Charmander FORCES you to teambuild, or else you'll never get past Misty.
Who picks Squirtle lmaoooo
@@ImportedCheese I always use bulbasaur as a status mon in firered, I find it does better with toxic and leech seed while leaving the heavy lifting to other moms
@@ImportedCheese You can get past her with a bit of luck or grind until you can 2HKO her Starmie but yeah, leaning on just Charmander will give you a hard time with Misty. Bulbasaur is good for more than just early-game stuff too. It gets Sleep Powder which is really nice because of how strong gen 1 sleep is, not to mention for catching the hard stuff. You may wanna get it before evolving into Venusaur though since if I remember correctly, Venusaur gets it pretty late.
@@ImportedCheese Lol, who picks Charmander? If you think you "need" a Fire-type, just get a Growlithe right outside Celadon. Celadon is the only place where Fire is even somewhat useful since the Grass Gym is there, and Arcanine has better stats than Charizard. _Way_ better stats. But even then, you can just sweep the whole Grass Gym with a Fearow with Drill Peck. It's almost as if Fire is useless in Gen 1!
I just noticed the heat waves, and random smoke during the Charmander bit.
Good job dude.
Aw, I'd like to take credit for that, but it was just a part of the stock background =(
@@ImportedCheese either way. The algorithm has blessed me with your channel. And the algorithm has blessed you with a view, and a new subscriber.
Much love _\- -/
And I appreciate the honesty.
Swords dance, Earthquake, Body Slam, Rock Slide and Chari just takes everything. 1 swords dance will one-shot everyone on the first 3 elite four with EQ.
I agree on Bruno/Agatha, but Lorelei uses three beefy bois (Cloyster, Slowbro, Lapras) who can all take a +2 hit and retaliate. You could always Swords Dance multiple times, but then you need to hope that you don't hit the 20% chance to crit, negating your own boosts.
Zard also doesn't get Rock Slide in gen 1. Only way you can get it is Gen 2 trade-backs since it's an Egg move from there. Yeah, that's why teambuilding is important. Unless you're overlevelled, he will struggle a bit in unfavourable match-ups.
Every of your videos is well made and just exciting. Thanks dude
I know that Pikachu as a starter sucks but in a red or blue playthrough, Pikachu/Raichu would be the only electric I would consider using in a playthrough, due to the fact it gets surf.
For the actual topic I would use Venusar due to having the best design, Double stab and always crit razor leafs.
Honestly, I'm not sure even Surf is enough to redeem Pikachu, its stats are just...unforgiveable. Really cute, though!
My favorite Gen 1 electric type is probably Eevee, just hop over to the department store, pick up a thunderstone, and start blastin'.
@@ImportedCheese I was talking about using Pikachu/Raichu in a normal playthrough by itself it's awful. Jolteon unfortunately has the issue of I've only got electric and normal type moves meaning it can't get past any ground types (funny enough this issue still stays with Jolteon even nowdays now that HP ice got snapped).
Ah, my mistake. Jolteon can actually get both Double Kick and Pin Missile, which can at least affect ground types, but you should probably just switch out >.>
I think modern Pikachu has access to Grass Knot, which is pretty nifty.
@@ImportedCheese Pikachu can't get Surf without Stadium or glitches in gen 1. I usually ditch it in Yellow once it's done its job of beating Misty. I can do without until I pick up Jolteon or Zapdos since you don't miss out on much without an Electric at that point in the game. Zapdos also kinda destroys Sabrina with just Drill Peck. Jolteon's attack is also kinda pretty bad but gen 1 crits make its physical movepool sort of viable. It can do more than Zapdos to the Rock/Ground types that wall him but its bulk is paper. Modern Pikachu also does get Grass Knot.
This is hilarious, definitely earned my subscription
Thank you! I think Gen 2 is a better video, check that one out, too!
Great video and about Charamander being hard mode is very true. The difficulty I faced as a child facing Brock and Misty were unmatched in the whole run till I reached Lance (even though the Lance fight was made trivial by overleveling)
Probably the long time I had to level up Charamander and its line made me like Charizard so much that its my favorite starter, even though I feel Swampert and Typholsion are much better in their respective regions.
Thanks for watching! It's nice to find kindred spirits who know the struggle of being a Charmander player.
Charizard is much stronger in the remakes (with a better movepool, buffs to fire type, and buffs to its special attack) but I will agree that Typhlosion and Swampert both perform better in their vanilla releases, especially Swampert. I haven't thought much about Gen 3 yet, but I'm pretty sure Swampert is getting a 9/10, it's one of the best starters of all time.
@@ImportedCheese Indeed, the change for Charizard was a welcome one.
Swampert is great even in the remake imo, but Typhlosion has a close challenger in the remakes because Feraligatr can learn Ice fang, which is a game changer vs Claire and Lance.
But Leveling up the red Gyarados or making the Piloswine your party members as Typholsion is better imo
@@bitthalranjit I really wish Typhlosion had more unique traits to help it step out of Charizard's shadow, as if getting a copy-paste of Charizard's stats wasn't bad enough.
It gets Eruption, which can be a cute gimmick, but without a mega or a crazy alternate ability like Drought I don't see the Typhlosion fanbase growing =(
@@ImportedCheese Even though the fanbase may not grow, we can take heart in the fact that it is the best starter in its region.
Though a mega evolution/ a good gimmicky move would help.
Lets hope it gets a regional form that is good. That's the only way I see Typhlosion being more popular.
@@bitthalranjit While Typhlosion is my favorite of the Johto starters, I think I may be giving the edge to Feraligatr in vanilla G/S. The very first video I made for this channel, a minimum battle run of Gold, relies on the broken Gen 2 incarnation of Rage, which only the Tododile line can use.
I'd love a regional form for Typhlosion, although please not another regional ice type...
Also, Typhlosion's Japanese name is hilarious, it's pronounced "Bag-hoon," which sounds like it's got a burning passion for collecting handbags and purses.
seeing this video after watching the green bug videos... this is my new favorite pokemon channel
I want a comp of your puns...for pain
If you're here for the puns, might I recommend my Gen 1 "Egg" move run? It's basically a half an hour of aggressive egg / food puns with a pokemon game in the background, I guess.
Behold!
th-cam.com/video/qQt64Js49-g/w-d-xo.html
Fat toad with a flower sucking it's shit out, a flying lizard with fire powers, a turtle with pipes in it's back
Overall Bulbasaur is best due to being good in-game and being competitively viable in PVP battles.
Actually, Lance suffers from Peanut Brain AI and a level 1 ekans can beat his Dragonite and 2 Dragonairs with ease. He'll only use Agility and Barrier, nothing else. Venusaur is actually only vulnerable to his gyarados's hyper beam, but it shouldn't 1 shot you, so the fight should be trivial.
I'd say pikachu is the best starter because you won't feel bad for stuffing it in a box after you caught your nido.
"Waifu type erica"
That had me in the first half
Fury cutter doubles it's power every time it's used in succession paired with something like a wide lens it's really scary lol
Arguably better than rollout for trying to set up sweeps
True but not for the first few gens.
I always preferred Charmander to the other two, but they're all useful. I got to use all three in Yellow, so that's what I did.
Fun fact: Bulbasaur is the best grass starter
Absolutely amazing video, but JOHTO WHEN
Also new sub
I just did a playthrough of Red/Blue with each starter, and I'd like to put in a word for our lovely little lizard Charmander. I concede that Brock is a pretty tough fight, but I don't think it's as hard as you're making it out to be. You don't even need to evolve to beat him; just battling all the trainers you come across is almost sufficient. I won at level 13, without switching, on my second try for example. (Past that you can either do like 1 level of grinding or just switch when in trouble). So while it's definitely the only starter to struggle vs Brock, "struggle" in this case means like... 5 extra minutes.
I agree that on paper, Misty is an even worse matchup. *However,* the crucial thing is that you don't actually have to fight Misty until wayyyy later; you can fight Rival 2, go to Vermillion, get a bunch of OP moves (Body Slam and Dig), and *then* come back to Misty. By that point you're evolved and way overleveled (high 20's) and can 2HKO everything with Dig, or even use Bide if you feel like it. So while the early game is definitely the hardest for Charmander, I don't think it's as much of a factor as you're making it out to be. If you actually know what you're doing, it costs you like 15 minutes total, max.
Nor should Charmander's strengths be underestimated. Being so fast means it's the only starter that consistently outspeeds Alakazam, and don't forget that it has the best physical move of the trio (Slash) to deal with it too. Given Alakazam is so OP in Gen 1, being able to outspeed and probably OHKO Alakazam is worth a lot. It also has an easier time with Agatha's Gengar, again courtesy of higher speed. Its movepool in general is also just great, like it has a *bit* less coverage than Blastoise, but it has stronger STAB (Fire Blast) and Slash really is OP. Admittedly, it struggles against anything with Hydro Pump (whereas Blastoise at least has Blizzard for Venusaur, though that's not actually a clean OHKO most of the time, mind you; it's an issue with Erika too, as most Grass types have strong Specials), and Lorelei is scary too, but that's where your teammates come in. Not to mention it gets a fantastic boosting move in Swords Dance, which Blastoise doesn't get.
In contrast, while Venusaur does get Razor Leaf, its coverage is squat (ONLY Grass and Normal... yikes), and Razor Leaf is actually comparable to Surf and Fire Blast in power (110 vs 95 and 120, respectively, and though it has better accuracy than the latter, it's also Grass type which is worse). You did mention in the video that Venusaur struggles late-game, but the magnitude to which it does should be recognized: late game struggles take a *lot* more grinding than early game struggles. Also, when I was using Bulbasaur I actually had quite some trouble with some early game trainers; it's not as bad as Charmander, but it's still notable. Leech seed and Vine Whip are great against the early gyms, but Bulbasaur is slow and weak on the physical end, and it only gets Vine Whip at level 13, so it's comparatively weaker against poison and normal types. So Venusaur, while great early game, isn't the clean sweep it's made out to be.
I do think Blastoise is still the best of the starters, but I think Charmander deserves at least a 6/10, probably even 7/10. It's got a good matchup against everything bar water types (which are genuinely scary) and the early game (which isn't so bad). Bulbasaur is maybe a 5/10 and Blastoise an 8/10. So concludes my way too long analysis haha, and thank you if you actually got this far!
I was maaaaybe a little harsh on Charmander, but it's only because I love him!
Also in a new video I'm working on, I fed every possible drop of XP to Charmander and STILL got bodied on Misty, so he really is a liability for the first two gyms.
And more seriously, can't wait for Johto. Especially what will you say about Whitney fight (the saving grace for the best starter, Chikorita).
Uploader: I'm a loser
Me: IDK, I kinda think you'd be a cool dude to talk to.
Uploader: Source: Dude trust me.
Me: (>'.')> come here... bring it in.
'Waifu type Erica'
Checks out
That feeling when he forgets that both Charmander and Bulbasaur gets swords dance 😢
Ah yes, the well known protagonist of the original Pokemon games, "a". And his douchebag rival, "A".
Hey, the B-roll footage from the "A Button Only!" run was what I had on hand, all right >.>
I was also hoping that people wouldn't be able to read it and catch on to my antics...ya got me.
Haven't watched the video yet,but love squirtle it gets shell smash (or atleast blastoise) coverage for grass types with ice beam and overall a pretty good movepool with identical atk and sp.atk making it unpredictable,also water is easily one of the top 4 typings out there,along with Dragon,Fairy&Steel
I believe I concluded that Blastoise did indeed win the Gen 1 starter war, at least for in-game
You could add the leech seed toxic stacking glitch for bulbasaur
That's true, but it's slow! We gotta go fast!
You have a lot of character and obviously put a lot of effort into your videos. It's very entertaining, so I subscribed. Here's to your success!
Thank you! Hope to see you in the next upload
@@ImportedCheese Done! If I ever go back to uni, I may actually use them. 😁 Thanks!
I always picked charmander. It's the obvious choice. Would you rather have a dumb giant turtle, an overweight frog or a freaking fire dragon
And the crit rate in Gen 1 was sick with slash
While people fight for which starter is the best, I throw mine away to use a different water/grass/fire type instead
afaik, I traded my Pokemon Yellow Pikachu to my Red version, evolved it, and traded it back. Yeah, it lost all the interation bits, but I mean, I had a Raichu.
Depends really. The best all around starter would have to go to Charizard. But for first time players Bulbasaur because the first 4 gyms Bulbasaur is super effective or resistant against.
Squirtle voids the grass weakness because it can learn ice attacks leaving really 1 weakness to electric.
Squirtle has the least weaknesses especially for the time period. Grass and Electric, but as I stated water types can learn Ice moves.
Bulbasaur has too many weaknesses: Fire, Flying, Poison, Psychic, Ground, Ice and Bug.
Charizard just needs to avoid rock slide since it's 4x weak against, but it's attack power and speed can one shot many things.
I think Gen 1 Charizard is sad overall, no 109 SpA. At least auotcrit Slash is nice
Pikachu is underperforming because they starved it to sell better.
Say no to Anorexia!
Bring back Chunky Pika!
Bruh we're talking about OG Pikachu at the peak of his Thiccness, tho! Skinny Pikachu from Let's Go is actually much stronger!
"Good chance they can't even read" Pokemon taught me to read at an early age. Constantly asking my parents what this word was, how to say that word or what levels meant and them just helping me understand what's going on even if they didn't know (thought level was the pokemon's age for a while)
I would largest media franchise of all time out of ten still choose Pikachu, then get the whole squad together for late game!
Living the Ash roleplaying dream!
pikachu gets you to the hall of fame fastest because of that glitch in pokemon yellow where you can beat the game in less than a minute.
Doesn't count here!!
The virgin starter user VS the chad "release the starter as soon as you catch your first Pokémon"
Supa hot fiya is my favourite non existent attack
Pls nerf
Non-existent? Have you ever gotten a RBY Charizard to lv 100? It's real, man, just like Mew is under that truck...
@@ImportedCheese i knew it, gamefreak loved charizard since the very beginning. *honestly i never was a fan of charizard and i havent used one in about 12 years*
@@sleprvrru6y-lin-92 I mean, I've been a hardcore Charizard fanboy, but once I found out how mediocre he was my fanaticism definitely died down.
Good thing both his megas are fantastic!
What's that? Megas are gone? Uh...dragons! Fire!
(Gamefreak pls bring back megas...if you truly do wish to milk us fanboys...)
The charizard megas were definitely busted, maybe they're just hiding megas from us because they're turning all existing megas into charizard megas.
Wait its all charizard?
*it always has been*
Ever since stealth rock appeared i figured out that he wasnt the best - Moltres exists and does everything charizard wants to but better
@@sleprvrru6y-lin-92 I'm pretty sure their endgame is to give every pokemon an alternate Charizard form, it would be in like with their policy thus far.
Hey, Charizard is 10 points of speed faster than Moltres! And...it gets Belly Drum! And...uh....it looks cooler...?
I chose Squirtle just because blue is my favorite color. Blue version was my first Pokémon game, and I quickly fell in love with the Water-type. Ever since, I've always built a team around the Water starter. I know it sounds stupid, but once Hydro Cannon became a thing, I became obsessed with the move, trying everything under the sun to make it work (unless the Water starter has a signature move, I always give Special-based Water starters Hydro Cannon and Substitute). I have two brothers who always play the same generation with me around the same time, one of them always picks Grass (because green is his favorite color) and the other always picks Fire (his favorite color isn't red he just likes fire.) So, even if I stopped liking Water, I can't stop picking it because I'd end up stepping on someone else's toes. (I don't care that Scovillain has garbage stats, btw. I'm just happy I can use only 2 Pokémon to cover Water, Fire, and Grass instead of 3 (like how the Fire brother will always stick a Ludicolo on his team if he can)).
but hyper beam clones are bad!!!!!!
@@ImportedCheese That's what Substitute is for: being shielded on the recharge turn so my starter doesn't faint. I'm not committing the sin of taking damage if I'm behind a sub. Plus, since I like having fun above all else, I play on switch mode, so if something that _can_ break the sub is coming out, I can just switch to something that can deal with it _before_ it can do anything.
Grass was so overpowered in gen 1 that GameFreak had to nerf it, and poor Bulbasaur, Vileplume, and Victreebell couldn't recover ever since. Also, Pikachu is straight-up awful. Have no idea why he's the mascot rather than Clefairy, Eevee, or literally anyone else.
I have no idea why they gave Grass five weaknesses...meanwhile Fire types have the most resistances behind Steel wtf. But hey, at least Grass types are now immune to powder moves, and you can't spell powder without P O W E R!
...I think Clefairy was originally planned to be the mascot, but it ended up becoming Pikachu for some reason. Oof.
@@ImportedCheese Yeah, I know. What's funny is Jiggly and Clefairy got pretty good buffs starting with Gen 6, while Pikachu remained… Pikachu. He got what, Nuzzle?
@@graveyardsmash2711 They gave him more accessible Surf in 7th gen, right?
You’ve got a new subscriber off beginning of the video love your energy and can’t wait for more videos you would be a great narrator in movies
Eyyy thank you
I randomly started replaying Yellow.
Pikachu was regulated to meatshield the instant I caught Nidoran, and went into the box forever when I got to Celadon.
All is as it should be.
0:35 ... I don't know why, but I suddenly think a tournament that pits all the starters from every game together sounds kinda cool....
Charizard: accidentally steps in a sharp rock
Charizard: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH
I've got my boots on tho.
@@ImportedCheese *Charizard gets banned from ag*
Me, trading my Yellow Pikachu to Red to evolve it then trade it back: *"I am four parallel universes ahead of you."*
6:06 you say that but Hop in Shield probably has the hardest rival fight ever in the post-game, mostly because of Zacian.
I hear that Zacian might be a bit overpowered, just a rumor tho