Most Popular Starter Generation

[Neyo]

So, I’ve done 3 other threads for people’s favorite Water, Grass, and Fire type starters, so now I’m doing one for the overall most popular starter lines. You can make your vote by any parameter, but please consider all of the options before voting.

 

[Serverus Snope]

I feel like the Gen 6 starters work the best as a cohesive unit. There's a solid theme shared by all three of them (fantasy RPG archetypes) and they all clearly complement each other. There are other starter trios where this applies (i.e. the Galar starters all having ties to different aspects of British culture,) but still.

 

[WyndonCalling]

Gen 1, because I want my starters to be ginormous, ugly, skull-crushing monsters. None of this 'best friend' nonsense for me, thanks, I want to unleash kaiju upon Kanto.

 

[PurplePopplio]

Definitely Gen 3. All three are solid Pokemon and are still very admired to this day. Swampert is a beast, Blaziken is a powerful speedy chicken and Sceptile is quick and hits hard.

 

[Phosphene]

Funny enough, I'd go with gen 1. Originally I said gen 5 in a similar question, but honestly gens 1 and 2 are the only two generations where I think all three starters are solid designs. Every other gen has at least one starter that I don't like, except for those two. I went with gen 1 because I think they're a bit more monstrous overall than the gen 2 starters.

 

[nickdt]

I have to say gen 8, since none of the starters have more than 2 type specialists they are weak against.
Inteleon - Only has Milo as its weakness
Cinderace - Only has Nessa And depending on the version Gordie
Rillaboom - Only has Kabu and depending on the version, Melony.

While Swampert elevates Hoenn (You can solo Hoenn with Swampert or don't need a full team, since Swampert and Swellow are enough to defeat the game), Sceptiles and Blazikens weaknesses bring it down.
Sceptile - weak to Flannery, Winona and Glacia
Blaziken - weak to Roxanne (As a Torchic), Winona, Tate and Liza, Wallace (Ruby/Sapphire) and Juan and Wallace in Emerald.

I am not only looking at designs for this poll (Else gen 7 wins by a landslide, since every single of the fully evolved starters in Alola are in the top 10 with the most recent Worldwide Popularity Poll), but rather overall usefullness when combining every starter per region.

 

[Neyo]

Funny enough, I'd go with gen 1. Originally I said gen 5 in a similar question, but honestly gens 1 and 2 are the only two generations where I think all three starters are solid designs. Every other gen has at least one starter that I don't like, except for those two. I went with gen 1 because I think they're a bit more monstrous overall than the gen 2 starters.

I think my main problem with Gen 2’s starters is that they don’t go anywhere their first form doesn’t. Like, the main thing they do is just get…bigger. Don’t get me wrong, I love them, but even Charizard and Blastoise actually seemed to develop. In Charizard’s case, from a lizard to a dragon. Typhlosion and Feraligatr just get larger and with a slightly different pose.

 

[Daenerys]

I feel like everyone in the world has seen at least one picture of Charizard so by default I think the Gen 1 starters are the most well-known. They're my favorite set too even though I like the Gen 3 ones almost as much.

 

[skywaffles]

This is tough for me because there are some starters where I love their first stages (Popplio, Squirtle, Tepig, Grookey, Litten, etc.) But their final form isn't that good. And also vice versa (Serperior, Blaziken, Delphox, etc.) but their 1st stage isn't good. Like in Black and White, it was super hard for me to pick a starter because Tepig was my favorite stage 1, Dewott was my favorite stage 2 and Serperior was my favorite stage 3, just like Popplio is my fav stage 1, Torracat stage 2, and Decidueye for stage 3, etc. So it's always a pain trying to pick my starters. Especially for Gen3 because every single one of them is really good. So gen3

 

[WyndonCalling]

I must say that I'm not particularly surprised at all the Gen 3 love. I think it hits a sweet spot for diverse yet streamlined design; though I adore them, the Gen 1 and 2 starters all have bulky silhouettes and fairly restrained colour palettes in many instances. On the flip side of the coin, Gen 4-onwards sees the creep of designs that are not only quite complex in some instances, but also overtly referential to the point of undermining the naturalistic world-building. Empoleon is Napoleon, Incineroar is a wrestler, Decidueye is Robin Hood. Gen 3 was arguably the last time that we saw starters that were simply stylised animals and though Gen 1 is my preferred squad, Swampert is my single favourite starter overall.

 

[Camille]

I'll go with Generation V, as I actually like all three of them. All other generations have at least one fully evolved starter Pokemon I don't much like - Venusaur (mostly because of its movepool), Meganium, Blaziken, Infernape, Delphox, Incineroar, and in Galar, I only really like Cinderace.