Right. That’s enough of that. For now, anyway.
A few weeks ago (or… maybe it was months… or… something) reader NateyM suggested I review and rank the starter Pokémon. I wasn’t so sure about the ranking, mainly because I have to admit I’m horribly biased on this one: I like all the Grass-type starters better than all the Fire- and Water-type ones; in fact I’ve never actually chosen a Fire- or Water-type for my first playthrough of a game. Why? Because Grass Pokémon are awesome; now shut up. Anyway, although I do my darnedest to stay impartial when I review individual Pokémon and have honed my objectivity to a razor edge, I’m not convinced I could produce a ranking that would be truly meaningful. Not to mention I’m genuinely frightened of what everyone else would think of my decisions – if you look at my Top Ten Worst Pokémon Ever, well, most rational people can agree that Kricketune is a rat’s anus of a Pokémon that should never have existed in the first place, but if I actually come out and say that I think Empoleon is better than Blastoise or whatever, I could get lynched! I prefer courses of action that keep lynchings to a minimum, where practicable, especially in situations where I would be the lynchee. Hmm. Lynchee. Is that even a word? *right-click; add to dictionary* It is now.
Nor am I going to be doing my old “I hereby affirm/deny this Pokémon’s right to exist” schtick, partly because that would also fail to minimise lynchings, but also because the starter Pokémon as a group are pretty well designed, on the whole. There are very few that I have major problems with. The fact is, Game Freak do pay a lot of attention to the starters; they know how important these Pokémon are to creating a good first impression with the audience and getting players invested right from the start, so for the most part they do a pretty good job with them. With… y’know… certain exceptions, but let’s leave that discussion to the individual entries. The other problem is that it’s hard to establish a point of reference when talking about the starters because there’s a batch of them in every generation. Each trio of starters was created in a different environment, with a different set of Pokémon around already and a different set of Pokémon being introduced concurrently, and each trio has endured different changes in the way the games’ mechanics function and different changes in their own battle roles, and so on. I’m going to talk about all that stuff as we go, of course, but in most cases it’s a bit more complicated than a simple yes/no.
I’m not going to cover the Black and White starters ‘cause, y’know, I already did. Here’s Snivy, Tepig and Oshawott. I guess I might do Snivy again if I feel like it, since that was my first entry ever and quite a bit shorter than what I’ve become accustomed to writing, but I don’t think there are any major points I need to make.
Anyway, there’s no place to start like the beginning, so my next entry will be about Bulbasaur, Ivysaur and Venusaur, the original Grass-type starters. See you then!
Pokémaniacal 