I actually remember the discourse when Black and White came out. Emboar being Fire/Fighting was DESPISED because it was the third fire starter in a row to have a secondary type of Fighting.

Chikorita was release in the wrong region!

Hairs looking on point my man.

It all boils down to this: Just because a Starter doesn't have a good type match-up in one or more points in the game, that alone doesn't make it a "bad" Starter.

Note: Charizard has much less special in gen 1 than in gen 2 and beyond. So it's 109 base special attack was really 85 back then, contributing to its reputation

As a huge totodile stan since day one, I am not as surprised since cyndaquil always stole the spotlight. My boy deserves so much more

Smiths hair is the most underrated starter

i'll watch this man yap about ANYTHING related to pokemon ngl

I have a hard time not choosing Totadile.  All time favorite Pokémon!

Tbh Chikorita is like driving an ae86. You can't just rely on horsepower to win. Like the video said, the goal of Chikorita is to train you, into better player rather than "just slam gas pedal & let the horsepower carry".

Something I always remembered for some reason is that when we got one of my families R/B/Y copies used, the previous file had a charmeleon with dig and mega punch and my 5 year old brain went "why give fire pokemon not fire moves". Turns out the previous owner actually knew how to play the game

In 1999, before information traveled fast, and after all the sloppy coding of gen 1, when you didn't know all the moves you would learn, when you would evolve, who you would fight next, and whether or not moves are coded to do what the game says they do, playing chikorita as a 9 year old is an absolute nightmare. The nuance of it's payoff as a support role in the late game only applies if you bother to make it to the late game.

I was going to die on my meganium hill, but the mega was such a great game changer I don’t really know where to stand

For me the main problem with Chickorita was the absence of 'Sleep Powder'.😂

HEAVILY agree on the route running of Pokemon being an underrated aspect of the games. It's something that frustrates me to no end when people talk about in-game matchups because it doesn't account for this nuance. Thank you for bringing this up in an eloquent manner!

any day smithplays pokemon uploads a new video is a good day :_Love:

You know, your videos can cure the "I dont want to hear about Pokemon" depression that comes from a losing streak on Champions.

28:26 " I WAS BORN IN THE WRONG GENERATION" - Chespin (probably)

Great video

I swear I'm not just a contrarian but this is almost a list of my favorite starters