Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle?

[Doppleganger]

When you first played R/B/Y, which starter did you pick, and why?

...

Surprisingly, I can't remember what I picked. I believe I played Blue first, and may have gone with Bulbasaur. But I also remember playing Red not long afterward and picking Charmander. I never used Squirtle.

My rationale was from the games, Bulbasaur was probably the easiest to pump due to his type advantage against the Pewter, Viridian and Vermillion gyms. Indeed, I look back and for G1, Grass attacks are x2 versus Rock, Ground, Water and Grass types take 1/2 damage from Electric. Similarly, while Bulbasaur wouldn't do so hot against Bug Pokemon, Bugs were weak early game so that didn't matter. And as a dual type he had the widest range of resistances and neutral attacks.

I also liked Bulbasaur because he was a dinosaur. Sort of. Had the coolest voice in the anime and was a tough SOB.

[Princess Ana]

My favorite starter line of the bunch was Bulbasaur, so he was my first choice. Never really cared about how easy he was to train too. Never was too big of a fan of Squirtle though.

[Connor]

My very first was technically Pikachu since I began with Yellow, but I soon started Red and ended up picking Squirtle, which remains my favourite of the trio to date.

[Talon87]

Bulbasaur. He was my favorite of Ash's three KantoStarter Pokémon and I could not wait to play with him.

My history with starter choices went:

• Blue Save File 001: Bulbasaur (lost save file)
• Red Save File 001: Squirtle (aborted save file)
• Red Save File 002: Charmander
• Blue Save File 002: Bulbasaur

[phoopes]

I played FR/LG before I ever played R/B. Picked Charmander for Fire Red so that's what I went with in the poll, but my first time playing Blue I picked Squirtle.

EDIT: Only now am I seeing the OP says "When you first played R/B/Y..." whoops.

[Concept]

I remember starting with Bulbasaur back in the day for the same reason as Talon; it was my favourite of Ash's starter trio in the anime. Because I couldn't get the other two starters and 7 year old me couldn't find Pikachu, I ended up rolling with Pidgeotto (which obviously couldn't evolve because Ash's hadn't yet!) and Butterfree alongside it.

And of course the moment Yellow came along I rolled with Pikachu, Pidgeotto, Butterfree and Starter Trio.

[Lady Kuno]

Squirtle on first playthrough. I feel like I fucked that game up and couldn't beat it so I restarted and went with Bulbasaur.

[Slash]

I started with Blue. Thus Squirtle.

[Chalis]

Bulbasaur, since I loved how it looked a lot when I was like seven, and my brothers chose the other two, so I decided to complete the trio. Still love it.

[takkupanda]

Squirtle was my first RBY starter. This was probably back in 2005. The reason was that I had played Silver earlier and in that I had picked Totodile (because it looked the fiercest of the three) and he ended up being quite a solid Pokemon - being able to counter the rival's Grass types with Ice Punch, which was a TM then. I thought water types worked great for me and I could use the same strategy with Blastoise, teaching him Ice moves to deal with Blue.

Also, the vote distribution looks very interesting!

[Talon87]

ARMCHAIR ROCKETSHIP INTO SPAAAACE!

Spoiler: show

In my armchair view, the current vote distribution (8-2-8) suggests that UPN 1) consists mostly of people unaffected by or else disaffected by Charizard Fever; and 2) that those unaffected by Charizard Fever incidentally had a predilection for the other two starters.

Taking it one step further, I'd theorize that the results reveal that UPN consists mostly of people too old or too young, that is to say that UPN is missing the key demographic of people whose very first introduction to Pokemon RBY came in the years 2001, 2002, or 2003. Hence my distinction between those unaffected by the fever (fans who played RBY prior to 2001) and those disaffected by it (those who played after 2003 and who, by such point in time, were predisposed to hearing nonstop about how great Charizard is and who decided that they wanted to dislike him and/or that they wanted to prefer one of the other two).

As for the unaffected camp and why they should care about Bulbasaur and Squirtle so much more than Charizard, I dunno. One hypothesis would be that the anime had an effect on our choices. I know it did on mine and Concept's. (See above.) Back in 1998, Charmander was probably the least popular of Ash's team besides GeneriBird. That isn't to say that he was unpopular; just that people tended to feel a lot more affection towards the gruff old man of the mountain (Bulbasaur) or the Michelangelo (Squirtle) than towards the high-pitched Zippo lighter. Maybe that at least in part explains the distribution we're seeing.

Armchair reasoning aside, yeah: it's an interesting distribution.

[Lady Kuno]

The TV show had no influence on my decision. I liked Blastoises's shoulder canons. I played Pokemon before the show was even on the air.

[Stealthy]

Water4lyfe.

I got Blue. I saw turtle with shoulder cannons. I said yes.

[Ethereal]

I think the first one I got during my first ever run of any game was Squirtle from Jenny in Vermilion. I was 2 or 3 and didn't know about where to find Bulbasaur or Charmander, so Jenny, being in the middle of the city, was the only one I got. In my first run of R/B, I think I picked Bulbasaur because I thought it looked the coolest in GSC. Who doesn't like frog mammal monster things with massive plants on their backs?

[Heather]

Squirtle. As you know, childhood deprivation had me start on Gen 4, where I chose Piplup because it was a penguin (was really into penguins at that age!). When it turned out to be able to eventually go Hector on the entire game, I fell in love with Water starters, so the moment I got a Red Rom on my emulator? SQUIRTLLLLLLE!

[Eliteknight]

iirc it was squirtle but I did playthroughs with every starter

[Torkoal Stu]

I'm surprised that Charmander has the lowest. I honestly remember the R/B days being clogged by Charizard-mania with everyone saying it was amazing.

But it was Squirtle all the way for my first play through.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Torkoal Stu

I'm surprised that Charmander has the lowest. I honestly remember the R/B days being clogged by Charizard-mania with everyone saying it was amazing.

I am and I'm not. On the one hand I associate Charizard Mania's beginnings with the Kanto era of the PTCG. On the other hand, I don't really remember it being that prominent until after Ash's Charizard began to obey him -- which wasn't until some time around late 1999, early 2000 in the United States, Europe, and Australia. And that, while ages ago, would still place it outside the largest single window of time in which most Gen 1ers played Pokémon for the very first time.

I dunno. I feel like no matter what the results are we could make sense out of them. But yeah, they're neat all the same.

[Doppleganger]

The #1 impact on "Charizard Fever" was definitely the Pokemon TCG, rather than the Pokemon anime. Base Set's Charizard was the most powerful Pokemon card at the time, although it has always been more style than substance. But with the 100 damage attack and 120 HP, it was the most sought after card and the crown jewel of any middle schooler's collection.

When I was collecting the TCG cards, I wanted Venusaur more, and got Venusaur (and Blastoise) and never got Charizard. That rarity had me desire it a lot more so I got interested in using it in-game too.

Charizard obeying Ash happened right around when the Pokemon TCG landed. I remember it being an ABSOLUTELY MANIA during my Fall Semester of 7th Grade, which was September-October 1999. Wikipedia claims that Cinnabar Island's episodes debut on 18 September 1999, so close to the same place.

Charizard had been rarely featured since it evolved earlier in the year, so returning just to kick arse really booted up the hype train.

[Kindrindra]

Wow I honestly expected to lose a load of hipster cred by picking Char. XD

tbh I wasn't really affected by the anime nor the cards since I played the games first. I thought Bulbasaur was too... Froggy? And Squirtle just felt too plain. Charmander on the other hand I liked because he was sleek and cute and I liked the touch of the fire tail. I didn't know the terms back then, but I guess if I had to translate my mentality, I'd say that I thought Bulbasaur was overdesigned, Squirtle was underdesigned, and Charmander was that nice inbetween. *shrug*

I warmed up to Bulbasaur by the time FR/LG came around (sprites not being monocolour helped), but it took me a fair while longer for me to start to like Blastoise. [/monologue]

[Selena]

My first starter was Pikachu because Yellow. As for which of those three... all of them because Yellow allowed you to do so. I did end up picking Chicorita in Gold/Silver though. Can't really remember why, guess it's design appealed to me. Falkner was hell though, ended up getting that tradeable Onix to beat him. Incidently I have picked the grass starter first ever since.

[Muyotwo]

Originally Posted by Torkoal Stu

But it was Squirtle all the way for my first play through.

Knew I could count on you, Stubert.

[Missingno. Master]

Well, I know I vividly remember my very first Pokémon game, and I vividly remember what my first starter was... only thing was, first game was Yellow, so my first starter was Pikachu. I don't remember what I started with first time I played Red or Blue. I want to say Charmander, but I really couldn't tell you.

[Char]

I wonder if anyone can guess which starter I picked? It was the first Pokemon card I owned, the one I liked the most from the get-go, and I didn't know anything about its evolutions until later. My favorite starter of all time.

Spoiler: show

Charmander

[Torkoal Stu]

Originally Posted by Muyotwo

Knew I could count on you, Stubert.

: D

But how could anyone resist Squirtle?