Data crunching the stats of the three starting Pokémon of the original games has found that Squirtle offers the best stats, both in the early game and later on.
Additional data crunching in the article shows that the overall power level has not increased significantly between each version or generation of the games.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 25 2014, @07:56AM
Does it really matter which starter is best? Every one will allow you to easily complete the game with very little strategy, you don't even need to catch a second Pokemon or grind levels to complete the early pokemon games. Simply taking the most direct route is entirely doable with any starter, I know because I have actually done so.
(Score: 2) by wantkitteh on Friday April 25 2014, @09:37AM
Might be useful competitively if you're a UU-tier player looking for a good Rapid Spin'er, but it's not like starters are hard to trade for online. Last starter I chose was Charmander for a novelty Double NU Castform team. Yeah, starters are *that* useful competitively.
(Score: 2) by elf on Friday April 25 2014, @12:57PM
The geek in me thinks pointless facts like this are quite cool :)
(Score: 2) by hybristic on Friday April 25 2014, @08:36PM
I love Pokemon. Always have. I even have a tattoo of Squirtle rocking his Squirtle Squad glasses and everything. A popular reaction to people seeing my tattoo is that I should have went with Charmander. And to an extent I have to agree. While Squirtle has the most stat potential, his evolutions kinda suck. I mean I love Blastoise, but he doesn't really ever gain an edge. Charmander however learns to fly and can learn Dragon moves. Also when you look at how many quality fire Pokemon there are, you don't have many options. Charmander makes it easy to find a high quality fire Pokemon that will work well at every stage in the game. You can then get a Gyarados and Execute and have a quality team that can counter most Pokemon types.