The Hardest Question Of Our Childhood

The Hardest Question of Our Childhood

Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle?

Who did you choose?

Undoubtedly one of the most important days of my life, was Christmas 1999. Leading up to it, I was camping with my family in Waikuku beach. I picked up a Game Boy original from a garage sale for $20 and was stoked (even without any games, having such slick tech was coool!)

Days later, I found out that Santa had brought me Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition. I looked at the box art, and me oh my yes boy did I enjoy that.

That shit belongs in the Louvre.

Electrifying as it comes

Chomping at the bit, after reading the instruction manual on how to play the game (yes, back then games actually came with a lovely notebook on how to play, with nice visuals and tips) and putting in the 4 AA batteries, I powered on this black-and-white dot matrix beauty.

I had to choose a name. Back then I wasn’t known as FTB, the internet was in it’s infancy and gamertags weren’t really a thing – plus I was 9 years old. I’m pretty sure I put something epic like ‘Fraser’ as the name, waited for Prof. Oak to remember his grandsons name, and into Kanto I was teleported.

Soon, came the biggest decision…for most kids. Grass, Fire or Water. In Pokemon Yellow, you are given a Pikachu, and he follows you around, which was pretty awesome for the time. No decisions for me – however I then went on to play one of the best games I have ever played.

But lets say I was one of the luckier kids who got Pokemon Red the summer before, who do you choose?

There is no clear winner on cuteness

So which one is best?

My first playthrough of Pokemon Red – I chose Bulbasaur. I thought Grass Pokemon were cool, I thought Bulbasaur was cool, according to The Pokemon Handbook he was easy to train, and Vine-Whip was _badass.
_

To the new user, Bulbasaur and Squirtle were the easier options to start with. You could easily take out Brock, and no type disadvantage with Misty. Later in the game however, Blastoise started to have problems being only a water type, and Venusaur didn’t really have any attacking moves outside of Razor Leaf, which is bad against common flying Pokemon. Charmander was always the ‘hardcore’ choice. Hard to start against gyms, harder to evolve, learns moves really late in level.

As it stands in the competitive battling scene, none of them are used in top tiers anymore (excluding mega versions). In fact, none of them have ever really been used competitively, with the exception of Venusaur as a tank/sleep powder user. Charizard rarely ever sees play due to his horrible speed. Blastoise has always been useless, due to only a water typing, bad movepool, and average stats.

All three Pokemon have the same share of stats – Venusaur being the more defensive and special attacker, Charizard the speedy physical attacker, and Blastoise the slow all-rounder. I think it’s safe to say Blastoise is the shit choice, Venusaur the ‘easy mode’ choice, and Charizard the ‘harder mode’ choice.

All of this said, if one day Pokemon becomes reality, you bet your ass:

I’d choose Charmander.

Posted on July 11, 2017July 11, 2017