Glen-i

That's, uh, wait, what? You monster! Now, hang on! Croconaw, sure. But Feraligatr is a rugged, handsome bugger! Well, these days. NO! DON'T LOOK AT THE GOLD SPRITE! Where's it's neck? Actually, speaking of weird Feraligatr sprites. Here's the back sprite from the Gen 3 games. I swear, this is not edited! That's the actual sprite in-game! After that, Game Freak finally settled on a more consistent design for it. Good memory! I take it, this is what you mean? Typhlosion has one too! Where's Meganium's? That's cute, you think Meganium's popular enough for that? I'm not wrong. Meganium is really unpopular! Nah, only joking. Still unpopular though. See, now this is amusing. Because in Explorers of Darkness, I got assigned Charmander through the quiz, and went with Totodile as the partner. And now every time I replay the Explorers games, I can't bring myself to deviate from that initial selection. Charizard and Feraligatr just feel like a weirdly natural duo, despite being completely different types. Probably helps that they're both reptiles. And yes, the nicknames my Charizard and Feraligatr have are the same nicknames from my Explorers file.

I knew it! Couldn't go one post without someone posting that theme tune! I knew it would happen!

He most certainly didn't. In fact, it's one of the rare times in the 90's where he borrowed a game off of me at one point! Anyway, I remember Extreme-G being thoroughly OK. Then again, I don't really like F-Zero, so this game probably never stood a chance with me.

Plausible deniability. Literally can't remember how I got it.

So now we move on to Generation 2, better known as Pokémon Gold, Silver, and Crystal, which is set in the Johto region. Despite the box art for these games sporting the Game Boy Colour logo on it, these games were compatible with the standard Game Boy (Not Crystal, though). I don't know if that had an impact on actually designing the Pokémon, but it's worth keeping in mind. Chikorita (CHICK-oh-REE-ta) kicks off the Johto Pokédex. Unlike it's Kanto counterpart, this Pokémon doesn't have a secondary type (actually, all the Johto starters only have one type), so it serves as a far better introduction to the concept of type matchups this time. That said, don't expect an easy time at the beginning if you go with the grass starter, Johto's first two gyms are Flying and Bug, which Grass performs terribly against! Bayleef (BAY-leaf) still mostly falls in the catagory of "overshadowed middle evolution", but there is one notable time where a Bayleef features, it functions as one of the three Pokémon the player has a choice between in the Generation 3 game, "Pokémon Colosseum". No prizes for guessing what the other two choices are. But it's caught at level 30, so will quickly evolve before it makes an impression. And now we have to talk about Meganium (meg-GAY-nee-um), arguably the most cursed starter Pokémon ever. If you remember, I described Venusaur as a noob trap. In comparison, picking Meganium is the choice if you don't want to actually use your starter in Generation 2. The Johto region hates Grass types. Out of the 8 gyms there, Meganium is effective against precisely none of them. As well as that, Meganium matches up poorly against half of them. And if that wasn't enough, Meganium's movepool is awful! Ironically, if Meganium had the secondary Poison typing that Venusaur did, it could have at least learnt Sludge Bomb, which got introduced in this game. But instead it only gets Razor Leaf, and Body Slam (No, Solar Beam is forever crap). You could use TM's to give it Giga Drain, which has a mediocre 60 power in Gen 2, and Earthquake. There are many better candidates for a valuable TM like Earthquake, don't waste it on Meganium. This combination of awful movepool, and a region that is hostile to it, cements the Chikorita line as the least popular Gen 2 starter by far. And it only gets worse. A lot of early starters would get new tools over the generations that help them adapt to the ever changing mechanics, but not Meganium. Other then getting Energy Ball in Gen 4, nothing of real use was given to Meganium. Truly a forgotten Pokémon. You know it's bad when False Swipe Gaming, a channel that focuses on the competitive side of Pokémon, made no attempt whatsoever to hide how utterly rubbish it is. Still, Namco decided to put Meganium as one of the Pokémon that's on the cover of New Pokémon Snap. That's it's biggest claim to fame as far the games go, and it only appears in one stage. So yeah, if you think your favourite starter is overlooked, well, at least it's not Meganium. Unless it is, then it sucks to be you. The Fire starter is Cyndaquil (SIN-da-kwill). I keep thinking it's meant to be some kind of hedgehog, but it's Pokédex classification is "Fire Mouse". ...OK, sure. Anyway, Cyndaquil's performance in the early game of Gold and Silver is quite haphazard, it shreds the Bug gym, but then gets absolutely demolished by the Normal one. Yes, Normal is neutral against Fire, but you can tell which player chose Cyndaquil as their starter by asking how difficult Whitney's Miltank was. If their answer is "The hardest gym in the history of Pokémon", then they likely chose Cyndaquil. Whitney ain't all that, guys. Basic strategy will take you far. Quilava (kwi-LAH-va), middle evolution, not much else to say. Although, now it looks like some kind of badger. This evolution line has a real identity crisis. Typhlosion (tie-FLOW-zhun) is the final evolution, and by far the most popular of the Johto trio. It's stat spread is truly excellent for a Fire type, Special Attack and Speed are both at least base 100. This would be let down by it's natural movepool, which only has Flamethrower as a viable attack. This would be disastrous, if it wasn't for the fact that for some bizarre reason, Typhlosion can learn Thunder Punch, one of the most excellent TM's in Gen 2. Thunder Punch can be bought in Goldenrod, the town with the third gym, so there's no reason to not teach it that. Fire and Electric is excellent coverage for a special attacker in Gen 2. Yes, Thunder Punch is not a physical attack, don't question it. That said, Typhlosion would not fare well in future generations. Specifically, the Generation 4 remakes of Gold and Silver, HeartGold and SoulSilver, were not kind to it. It can't learn Thunder Punch easily anymore, and even if it could, Thunder Punch is a physical move now. Oh right, yeah. Suppose I should explain the Physical-Special Split. It's important. Typhlosion doesn't do well with Physical attacks, so it now only has Focus Blast (120 Power, 70 accuracy, which might as well be 0 accuracy) as a non-Fire option. As an aside, some Pokémon fans get really annoyed with Typhlosion's depiciton in more modern titles, they get really angsty about Typhlosion's Fire effect not being seen all the time. This is stupid, because if those people ever read Typhlosion's Pokédex entries, or even watched the anime, they'd know that Typhlosion has always been able to turn it's fire off at will. Basic Pokémon knowledge, guys. So, in conclusion, if you're playing the Game Boy versions, Typhlosion's great! If you're playing the DS remakes, you might want to consider something else, something that I'm about to talk about. (Yes, I know about Typhlosion's other form, I've decided to cover that in a future post. Because it's weird) Totodile (TOE-toe-dyle) is the Water starter of Johto, and the only Pokémon I can do a decent impression of. Is it a crocodile, or an alligator? I'll never tell. It's very bitey, according to the Pokédex, which is a problem, because biting is how it plays. I wonder how many people in the world of Pokémon have had to take a sudden trip to a hospital due to overexcited Totodile? So normally, I don't really mention the anime, but Totodile is a special case, because it's hilarious! Ash's Totodile is something I remember quite fondly as a constant source of comedy. That's pretty much how I react when a CPU tries Scary Face on me, actually. Anyway, Totodile performs perfectly average in the early game. Not much to note here. Croconaw (CROCK-oh-naw) is yet another middle evolution, and yet another Pokémon that has no interesting things to talk about here. Feraligatr (fer-AL-ee-gay-tur) is a Pokémon that has had a mispelt name throughout it's entire life. The Game Boy games have a 10 character limit on Pokémon names, and they've never bothered to fix this in later games. The letter "O" is for losers anyway. But that's not all that's weird. Croconaw is the only starter Pokémon that evolves at level 30. To this day, I have no clue why this is the case. Level 36 is the standard, but there are some that evolve at level 32, but not this line. Still, early evolution is very much a plus in Feraligatr's favour. Feraligatr is a physical juggernaut, with great Attack and Defense, it also has a diverse moveset with no less then 4 easily accessible type options for attacks (Water, Normal and Dark, through level ups, and Ice through a purchasable TM, Ice Punch). This actually sort of works against it in Gen 2, because most of those options are classified as Special attacks. Yes, even Bite is a Special attack. Feraligatr doesn't have great Special Attack, so it's bad at biting... Yes, that sounds completely ridiculous. But despite that shortcoming, Feraligatr is still an excellent starter in Gen 2. That kind of type coverage is extremely rare in the Game Boy games, and you need Surf anyway, so it can't hurt. Ice Punch is still a fantastic move because of the abundance of Dragon Pokémon at the end. Feraligatr's great Attack stat also makes it an excellent candidate for the Earthquake TM for even better coverage. It can also learn Iron Tail, but Steel is a pretty rubbish offensive type, so I don't recommend that. Unlike Typhlosion, future generations would serve Feraligatr very well. The Physical-Special split helps it massively, and makes it by far, the best choice of starter in the DS remakes. But it got even better in the fifth generation. Which means I need to talk about "Hidden abilities". Feraligatr's hidden ability is "Sheer Force". It powers up moves that have secondary effects by 33%, at the cost of removing those secondary effects. Most of Feraligatr's best moves have secondary effects, so it uses this to great effect! Sheer Force also prevents the Life Orb item from damaging Feraligatr. Anyway, that's about everything with the Gen 2 starters. What's your favourite? So, surprise, surprise. Mine's Feraligatr. All the crocodilian Pokémon are great, to be fair. Just like Charizard, I still have the Feraligatr I caught on the DS remake. It's nicknamed Dalbert. In fact, I like Totodile a lot as well. Especially the anime depiction. Little dude likes to spin. Honestly, I'm baffled at how RedShell can discount all water starters when Totodile exists!

So, flat out accusing a 7-year old of theft? That's low.

So, catching up on Sakurai's YouTube channel and couldn't help but laugh at this. We'd get along well, I'd say.

Marth's ridiculous Smash Ball version of his Final Smash strikes again! Stamina Mode is just a suggestion. Didn't deserve that second last match, still laughed my head off!

To be fair, I imagine it also helps now that you have other people there in voice chat to laugh along with, and laugh at when misfortune inevitably falls on them. But I do agree that if a game is making you angry, you need to take a break. So you're both right?

Stamina matches tonight from 7:30 pm.

I actually owned this game! And to this day, I still don't remember how I came to own this game...

God, that sucks. Being so close to release date. That makes my decision to buy it day 1 even easier now. I hope it does well.

Pokémon spirits do that a lot. Mostly with groups of Pokémon that are generally depicted together in the series itself (Articuno, Moltres, and Zapdos, for example). I do have to wonder if that's The Pokémon Company dictating that they come in a set, or if the Smash team want to cram in as many different Pokémon as they can. No way of knowing, but I bet it's the former.

OK, so I started looking at some of the Japanese names of starters for any more humourous ones, but I found something far more surprising. Right, so Scarlet and Violet tweaked quite a lot of Pokémon models to look generally higher quality then they already were. Whether it be through better animation, or texture upgrades. Small things like that, but I got to Blastoise, and... Old Sword/Shield model is the first one. Uhhh... That's quite a bit more significant then I expected. I never realised this was the case because I never went back to Scarlet/Violet when they had all the starters come back. I checked all the other starters, and it's only Blastoise that's like this. Very weird. No idea why they changed it.

I saw these auto-correct mishaps coming a mile off. Still amusing. EDIT: Hah! Just noticed that @Julius got caught out by it as well! Of course, the irony is that Charmeleon is absolutely not based on a Chameleon in the first place. Always found that a weird name for it. Seeing as ol' Red there posted an Art Academy drawing, might as well follow suit.

Yup, 2 Steves VS 2 Foxes. I love the rare impromptu doubles match! Happens so infrequently, that it feels like an event when it happens. Also, @RedShell. Literally laughing at the movement of the sponge in your Nintendogs stage. Don't ever edit that aspect of it!

How dare you! To be fair, no-one did. The Game Boy games don't tell you what a move does when you're learning it, so back then, it was a real crapshoot whether a move was worth learning. Gen 3 would thankfully fix that. Another reason FireRed/LeafGreen are the best ways to experience Kanto. There are two main reasons why I'm not focusing on the anime: My knowledge of them is quite limited compared to the games, and I am categorically not looking up every instance of a certain Pokémon appearing in said anime! There are a couple of exceptions, but we'll get to them in due time. Thankfully, people like @Julius can help fill in some of my gaps when it comes to things outside of the games. Unlike my last "Looking back" thread on Pokémon, that aspect of the franchise does have an impact on the topic on hand, so I heartily encourage you to talk about that this time. And thanks for backing me up with some "outside the games" impressions, knew I could count on you there! You mentioned how the designs of Venusaur and Blastoise didn't gel with you because they looked like slightly ugly versions of what they evolved from, but I always appreciate a Pokémon whose design isn't meant to be cool or cute. Venusaur is one ugly mofo, but I think that works in it's favour. A lot of fans associate evolutionary steps as a substitute for an aging process in Pokémon. I'm guilty of such myself at times, even though the series doesn't want that to be what it means. EDIT: Actually, one thing I forgot to mention is that even Smash Bros itself references the curse of the middle evolution, so it's not just me flapping my gums. And also, this one is just funny. RIP, PikaPit...

Well, we can't be friends anymore...

Nope, you're too out of touch. Lucario is stupid popular! It's so popular, that since the dreaded Pokédex cut of Sword and Shield, Lucario hasn't skipped a single mainline game. Not even Charizard managed to pull that off! Game Freak wouldn't dare release a game without Lucario in it! There would be outrage! EDIT: It also literally placed 2nd in the "Pokémon of the year" poll TPC held. DOUBLE EDIT: In fact, just to hammer the point home.

Charmander definitely struggles more, but no, I do mean Misty. Her Pokémon resist Squirtle's better moves, and Starmie is a surprisingly amazing Pokémon to throw at you so early. At least with Lt. Surge, none of his Pokémon resist water, so if your Wartortle is strong enough, you can one shot most of his team.

Seeing as it won't feature in this thread, as it's not a starter, I'll just tell you. It's Lucario. It's insane how popular that Pokémon immediately became once Gen 4 came out. It got into Smash for a very good reason. EDIT: Anyway, I'm hoping this thread will help convince you away from your narrow minded viewpoint, because there have been some excellent starter designs over the years, and all of them better then Blastoise! But for everyone else, hold off on mentioning the later starters, don't wanna distract from the focus of the thread.

Yup, I'm bored! And when I'm bored, I tend to go on about stuff that really doesn't matter. After 9 generations of Pokémon, there are 30 different starter Pokémon (33 if you count a certain trio, 34 if you're an idiot). The majority of them serve as solid Pokémon that help to introduce the type matchups with one of the most simple triangle of weaknesses. I'm not gonna explain that, because I hope you're smart enough to already know that particular type trio off by heart. But let's face it, not all starters are created equal, and nothing demonstrates that unfortunate truth more then the Kanto trio. Bulbasaur (BUL-ba-sore), weirdly enough, is a Grass/Poison type (Actually, all of this family are), so it's already doing a terrible job of demonstrating type matchups. Real talk, it's why I thought Grass types were weak to Psychic until the third generation. In the original games, Bulbasaur is normally the Pokémon recommended for beginners, mostly because the first two Gym Leaders use types that are weak to Grass. Normally, middle evolutions of starters are not note worthy. Always overshadowed by the two forms it's in between. However, there are precisely three exceptions, and Ivysaur (EYE-vee-sore) is one of them. And it's all because of Smash Bros. That Ivysaur is the luckiest Pokémon ever In Smash Bros. Brawl, one of the newcomers was "Pokémon Trainer", an interesting character that doesn't actually directly take part in fights, but sends his three Pokémon to fight on his behalf. The player controls the Pokémon themselves, so functionally, it was just a cosmetic flourish of a transformation character that Zelda introduced to the series in Melee. But it was a cool way to represent the gameplay of Pokémon games in Smash. Squirtle was the fast, but weak, Pokémon, while Charizard is the slow, heavy hitter. This meant that Ivysaur was the choice for the one that's average, despite Bulbasaur and Venusaur being far more popular. Only Charizard returned in the fourth Smash entry, because, well, more on why in a bit. But with Smash Ultimate's "Everyone is Here!" megaton, Ivysaur's managed to worm it's way back into relevance. Real talk, in Smash Bros, I think Ivysaur is the best Pokémon character in the game, it's anti-air game is insane! It's so good, I barely use the other two, they just get in the way! Also helps that Ivysaur's current anime voice is hilarious! Venusaur (VEE-nuh-sore) is the final evolution, and by the time most players get one, they'll probably start realising that the Bulbasaur line is a bit of a noob trap in the Gen 1 games. It's useful at the start, but Grass/Poison is a terrible typing. Psychic Pokémon are way overpowered in Gen 1, and Venusaur's movepool is woeful. There aren't any good Poison attacks, and as for Grass, your best option is Razor Leaf, a 55 power, 95% accuracy grass move. Technically, it learns Solar Beam, but Solar Beam sucks because you have to spend a turn to charge it up. It does get Sleep Powder, but that doesn't save it. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the two form changes that Venusaur got, starting with it's Mega Evolution in Generation 6. Mega Venusaur is a prime example of why I love the Mega Evolution mechanic that is no longer seen in mainline games. It takes a mediocre Pokémon and transforms it into a very effective tank. The key difference between this and a certain lamer mechanic replacement is that it actually changes the Pokémon's ability. In Venusaur's case, it gains Thick Fat, eliminating it's Fire and Ice weakness. Also, one of the few Megas that doesn't add spikes to the design, thought that was worth mentioning. Come Generation 8, Megas were gone, but Venusaur is a generation 1 Pokémon, and as I have mentioned many times in the past, those Pokémon get mad preferential treatment, so it got a second form with Gigantamax Venusaur. Unlike Mega Evolutions, Gigantamax Pokémon barely differ from the normal version in battle. The only actual difference is that they get a unique attack only they can use while dynamaxed, and most of them are worse. It's such a downgrade. No-one will miss it. Gigantamax Venusaur wasn't even available at the launch of Sword and Shield. Which wouldn't be that noteworthy if it wasn't for a certain other starter. Speaking of... Charmander (CHAR-man-der) is the fire type starter, in case the tail didn't give it away. Being a fire type, it struggles against the first two gyms. So much so, that from Gen 3 onwards, it learns Metal Claw, so it has some sort of answer to rock types. For this reason, it's seen as the "expert" starter, because you'll likely need another Pokémon to deal with those gyms. Charmeleon (char-MEE-lee-un) is a middle evolution, and thus, has nothing to contribute to this thread (Get used to that being a thing). Charizard (CHAR-iz-ard) is, by far, one of the most popular Pokémon ever. Hell, I'd argue there are only two other Pokémon that are more popular. It gains the Flying type, which means it's not a dragon, despite looking about as "stereotypical dragon" as you could get in Pokémon. Fire/Flying is an unfortunate typing these days, because rock type attacks became quite good in later generations, and Charizard has a heart attack the moment you throw a pebble at it. It's pretty good in Gen 1 though, thanks to rock being kinda rubbish, and Charizard's respectable Speed stat giving it more then a few critical hits. It has a decent movepool, to boot. Definitely the starter that pays off the most there. Much like Venusaur, Charizard also gets a Mega Evolution in the 3DS games. Oh, but Game Freak absolutely adore Charizard. If Gen 1 Pokémon got preferential treatment during this time, then Charizard might as well be the freaking Pope with how much attention it got. Charizard got two Mega Evolutions. Yes, two. Venusaur and Blastoise fans can go ahead and suck Charizard's nonexistent balls. The black one is Mega Charizard X. It's Fire/Dragon type (Yes, this one is an actual dragon), and has stats that focus more on Physical attacks. The ability it gets is Tough Claws, which powers up contact moves by 30%. The orange one is Mega Charizard Y. It's still Fire/Flying (So... not a dragon), and has more special inclined stats. The ability it gets here is Drought, which changes the weather to intense sunlight whenever it enters battle. Charizard Y is the one to go for, Drought is a very powerful ability, and Charizard naturally does better with Special attacks. Also it's a better design, so there. It also got a Gigantamax form, and even that got more attention then it's Gen 1 brethren. Because unlike Venusaur and Blastoise, you could actually get one in Sword and Shield. In fact, you got one for free! Venusaur and Blastoise fans can continue to suck Charizard's nonexsistant balls. It's rubbish though, you're better off using a normal Charizard. Seriously, the Charizard favouritism is really bad, even the champion of Sword and Shield uses a Charizard as his "ace", instead of a Pokémon introduced in that generation like almost every other champion. Still not a dragon though. And to further prove that point, Charizard was playable in Pokkén. It's got pecs in that game, and it's forever weird. Actually, it features in a lot of spin-off's, we'll be here all day if I go through them. Let's move on. Squirtle (SKWIR-tul) kicks off the water starter family in Kanto. It's a turtle. It is not inspired by a squirrel, no matter what some people would have you believe, it's just a turtle. Don't be dumb. Squirtle performs well against Gen 1's first gym, but can struggle against the second one, it's really good in the last two gyms though! And it can learn Surf, which you need to finish the game, and is a very good attack to boot. You can't go wrong really, but there are a few better water types in Gen 1, including Lapras, which you can get a free one of. So Squirtle loses out to Charizard in most playthroughs. Squirtle could totally beat Charmander up in Gen 1 though, so if you're playing multiplayer with big Charizard fans, Squirtle might be the way to go. Wartortle (WOR-TORE-tul) is a middle evolution, so it exists, I guess. Blastoise (BLAS-toyce) is the only Gen 1 starter final evolution that doesn't have a second type. Hard to say if that's a blessing or a curse, but it can learn Ice moves. Water and Ice is a great combo for coverage, but Blastoise is actually slower then Venusaur, which is a big oof in Gen 1 where Speed is OP. Well, more OP then usual. By the way, this is a good opportunity for a confession. I genuinely think Blastoise is one of the worst designs in all of Pokémon. Squirtle and Wartortle are fine, but Blastoise is a crap design. The tail doesn't follow the increasing elaborateness that the other two do, and, well, the cannons are absolutely dumb. Blastoise is not a mechanical Pokémon, why the hell does it have cannons!? I hate it, no thought put into the evolutionary theming what-so-ever! And it's alternate forms only get worse. 50% more cannon, 300% stupider! Mega Blastoise is still a water type, but gets the ability, "Mega Launcher", which increases the power of any move that has "Aura", or "Pulse" in the name. Blastoise learns quite a few of those moves in Gen 6, so it's a solid Mega that can punch holes in a lot of Pokémon. Gigantamax Blastoise, much like the other Gigantamax starters, is not as good as just using the normal version. But, I mean, look at it. It's so incredibly dumb. Like, I'm talking "Gundramon from Digimon" dumb! Sword and Shield has amazing Pokémon designs, but this is a real blemish on that record. Btw, amazingly enough, Blastoise beat the odds, and got into Pokkén! ...Eventually, it was in the Switch version. So Venusaur fans can suck Blastoise's nonexisistant balls when they're finished with Charizard! That said, maybe Venusaur fans got lucky, because... Someone here accurately described it as "A guy in a Blastoise costume" There is actually one more starter. Pokémon Yellow didn't have any of the three starters above as your first Pokémon, instead it had one of the two Pokémon more popular then Charizard. Do I need to explain Pikachu (PEE-ka-choo)? It's the mascot! Pokémon Yellow took a few nods from the anime and gave you a Pikachu with incredibly staticy voice samples. It wasn't very good though. It is Pikachu, after all. Despite popular belief, you can actually evolve the Pikachu in Pokémon Yellow! It involves trading it to another cartridge and evolving it there. It stops following you though, and loses all the perks that particular Pikachu gets. And Raichu still kinda sucks, anyway, so why bother? I'm not gonna go into all the different forms and appearances of Pikachu! Screw that! I've already spent 2 hours on this post! Anyway, that's all for now. We're thankfully done with the longest post because of Gen 1 favouritism, but what's your favourite Generation 1 starter Pokémon? I know what you're going to think, but for me, it's Charizard. Yes, I'm part of the problem. But dragons are bloody cool! Even when they're not actually dragons. I've still got a Charizard from Fire Red in the latest games! It's nicknamed Draco. No, he's not named after the Harry Potter character, it's a Dragonheart reference. Got a soft spot for that movie.

Stock Format tonight. Custom Stages at 7:30.

Cool. 2 days in the past it is then! Yeah, I hope you meant the 15th of Feburary instead?