Which Original Starter Is the Best?

Original Pokemon Starter Line Up
Catching them all was the dream of nearly all Pokemon players of the original Pokemon GameBoy color games. With only 151 Pokemon to catch in the Red, Blue, and Yellow versions of the Pokemon games it certainly was and still is an obtainable goal. However one of the main plots and questions of every Pokemon game that every new Pokemon trainer faces is what Pokemon should be the Pokemon that you start the game with. All of the starters throughout the Pokemon series are unique and offer different game experiences. In this post I am going to compare and contrasts the strengths weaknesses and abilities of the four starting Pokemon of the original GameBoy Pokemon games.

1.) Pikachu

Pikachu is an electric type Pokemon and is the only Pokemon that you are able to start the Yellow version of the game out with. (The other three starters are available during the play-through of the game, and are fairly easy to obtain.) After Professor Oak gives you Pikachu you have to run a couple of errands for various people. Because Pikachu is not a very strong Pokemon in the beginning of the game and the first trainer you battle is Brock, who has ground type Pokemon, (Pikachu's weakness) I would highly suggest leveling up your Pikachu during these errands as much as possible.
   
Strengths

1. Pikachu is an electric type Pokemon who is very powerful against other water-type pokemon. This comes in handy when you face-off against Misty, the second gym battle in the game.
2. The Pikachu you get in the Yellow version learns the move Thunderbolt at level 26. Thunderbolt is a very powerful attack in the Yellow Version.
3. Pikachu learns the move Thunder at level 41 which is the most powerful electric type move in all of the original Pokemon Games.

Weaknesses

1. Pikachu is not strong in the beginning of the game when you need him most. 
2. Pikachu's weakness is ground-type Pokemon which you encounter often in the early stages of the game. This only makes the beginning of the Yellow version more hard.
3. Pikachu's greatest weakness comes with the fact that he cannot evolve into Raichu, Pikachu's stage two pokemon.

For the other three starters Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle, the same strategy used for Pikachu can be used. Level up as much as possible in the early stages of the game. The next three starters are available in the Red and Blue versions of the game.

2.) Bulbasaur

Strengths

1. Bulbasuar can be utilized in many different ways during the game. You can use his status effecting stats to catch more powerful Pokemon, or you can level Bulbasuar up to evolve into his stage two Pokemon Venusaur and use him throughout the game as you one-hit KO Pokemon. 
2. Bulbasuar is highly effective in the beginning of the game. He can easily beat Brock and Misty once he learns vine whip at level 14 
3. Bulbasuar has many resistances against attacks that will only do half damage to him. Ground, electric and water-type attacks only do 1/2 the amount of damage to Bulbasaur.

Weaknesses

1. Fire type attacks do massive amounts of damage to Bulbasaur.
2. Later on in the game when you face lots of fire type pokemon the game can prove to get difficult if you solely focus on Bulbasaur's evolution chain.
3. There are not many powerful moves that Bulbasuar can learn by leveling up. You have to use TMs to give him the extra power you need.

3.) Charmander

Strengths

1. Evolves into Charizard. Enough said!
2. Makes the later portions of the game much easier then they are using Squirtle or Bulbasaur.
3. Can learn many different powerful attacks that will do massive amounts of damage.

Weaknesses

1. Because he does not begin to learn very powerful attacks until around level 40, most of your time will be used up by leveling up Charmander.
2. The beginning of the game can prove to be difficult for the same reasons as choosing Pikachu as your starter in the Yellow Version.
3. Very weak against water attacks.

4.) Squirtle

Strengths

1. Makes the beginning of the game easy for the same reasons as Bulbasaur, except instead of learning vine whip Squirtle will learn bubble and water gun early on in the game.
2. Very powerful attacks can be learned in later levels as Blastoise.
3. Very powerful against fire-type Pokemon.

Weaknesses

1. In the later portions of the game it can be hard to utilize Blastoise due to the fact that many of the Pokemon in the later stages of the game have resistance to water-type Pokemon.
2. It takes a long time to get the powerful attacks like Hydro Pump, so like Charmander, a lot of time must be used to leveling up Squirtle.
3. Squirtle is extremely weak against electric type Pokemon, which proves to make Lt. Surge (3rd gym leader) difficult to beat.

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