Pokemon Fans Are Debating Which Generation Has the Best Starters

Pokemon fans are continuing the age-old debate about which generation of the monster-battling RPG had the best set of starters. With nine mainline pairs of games under its belt and a few spin-offs with starters of their own, there are now more than 30 little monsters that Pokemon fans can pair up with to start their journeys, so opinions on the best of the best abound.

The first generation of Pokemon games was released in Japan in 1996 and made its way west about two and a half years later. Pokemon's Kanto starters — Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle — have always been among the franchise's most popular and are still in the debate for the best starter trio, but they're not at the top.

Related

Pokemon: Every Generation's Worst Starter, Ranked

If players want to be the very best, like no one ever was, they are going to want to avoid the worst Pokemon starters in every Generation.

Posts 3

Game Rant's analysis of a recent Reddit thread with more than 400 comments found that the starters of Pokemon Gen 3 are far and away the favorite trio in the franchise's nearly 30-year history. Fans listing their favorite trio, and not just individual starters, picked Gen 3 as the best or tied for the best 82 times at the time of this writing. That's far above the second-place trio from Gen 1, which garnered 61 responses, and Gen 4, which came in with 59. While not all players are fans of Blaziken's design, most seem respectful of its raw power, and Sceptile's versatility, coupled with Swampert's nigh-invincible Water and Ground-type defenses, are big reasons why these three are at the top.

Pokemon's Most Beloved Starter Generations Determined by Fans

Gen 3 - Treecko, Torchic, and Mudkip Gen 1 - Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle Gen 4 - Turtwig, Chimchar, and Piplup Gen 7 - Rowlet. Litten, and Popplio Gen 2 - Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and Totodile Gen 9 - Sprigatito, Fuecoco, and Quaxly Gen 6 - Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie Gen 5 - Snivy, Tepig, Oshawatt Gen 8 - Grookey, Scorbunny, Sobble

But when it comes to the generation people seem to like least, the starters from Gen 8 take home the booby prize. While the recent conversation has been mostly positive, more people had bad things to say about Sobble, Grookey, and Scorbunny than good. And while they're getting a little more love, the Gen 5 grouping of Oshawott, Snivy, and Tepig is still getting grumbles from fans. It's not all bad, though, as the Hisuian variant of Samurott from Pokemon Legends: Arceus got a little attention thanks to the addition of Dark typing, with one fan calling it "what Samurott should have been from the get go." In addition, these two generations were also the least talked about.

Close

Generations 2 and 7 also put up some respectable numbers, but the Johto starters of Pokmeon Gold and Silver fell pretty far behind their counterparts from the franchise's early days, with nearly a quarter of mentions in the best-vs-worst debate falling to the latter. Like with Oshawatt, a lot of players weren't fans of the single typings that the final evolutions of Totodile, Cyndaquil, and Chikorita received, though Squirtle came out of the debate relatively unscathed thanks to a healthy dose of self-admitted nostalgia.