Pokémon General

[Chocofreak13]

i haven't even watched them....my VHS player has been broken for about 10 years. ><;;

[Nichi]

I can keep an eye out for a VCR for you, if you'd like :3

[Chocofreak13]

eh, i'd like to get mine fixed. it's built into the TV. :\

ALRIGHT GUYS, YOUR MOST HATED POKEMON, GO.

(mine is Hippopatas. >>; )

[alfonso_rd_30]

I like everyone, but tend to go towards watery ones and ralts, so I don't have a disliked poke

[NejinOniwa]

SPINDA

FUCKING SPINDA

[Nichi]

Muk. It's easily the worst Pokemon out of the first generation, and is my go-to example of how every generation has had their share of shitty designs >_<

[Chocofreak13]

i'm kinda sick of the "muk backwards" jokes too. :\
@nej: i kinda like spinda....if only because each one has a different pattern on it....plus i ran into so many while i was collecting glass dust to snort for the glass desk. damn right my secret base was classy~

[stewartsage]

Most disliked Pokemon?

Fucking Zigzagoon.

[Chocofreak13]

yeah, that one kinda annoys the crap out of me, too. it's like sentret but less cute. >>;

[NejinOniwa]

Let's not even mention the abomination that is Bidoof...

[Chocofreak13]

not as bad as the hippo. really. but bidoof is a stupid name, for a stupid pokemon. >>;;

am i the only one who thinks the starters have gone down in quality, too....?

[NejinOniwa]

Starters...

Currently, there are 2 starters used in competitive standard play (the Overused tier that is): Venusaur and Infernape. Infernape is a terrifying sweeper and has been so since his release, and is by far the strongest fire-fighting type out there; Venusaur got a really good ability in Chlorophyll with gen5, which made him an excellent choice for subseeding and supporting. The other starters are stuck in lower tiers, and with good reason.

Charizard has a 4x rock weakness which makes him practically unusable due to stealth rock. Blastoise is just meh, because there are SO many water types out there - same goes for Samurott, the gen5 water type. Blaziken from gen3 and Emboar from gen4 are inferior Infernapes, with Emboar taking the bottom spot due to its terrible speed.
Swampert, Sceptile, Torterra and Empoleon saw some use in Gen4, but with Gen5 they fell behind the curve nevertheless they retain their niches and fill them quite well; the Gen2 starters are ultimately quite forgettable, falling in with the rest of the swarm in their respective types. Finally, Serperior is waiting in the grass (hue hue) to break into competitive play, which he will likely do once he gets access to his Dream World ability Contrary (which reverses stat changes, including self-inflicted ones). Spamming Leaf Storm and GAINING power instead of losing it...is a rather frightening concept.

With regards to DESIGN and whatnot, my thoughts are mixed. While it seems fairly certain that we won't get YET ANOTHER Fire/Fighting starter in gen6's Fennekin, I'm not so sure about how original the other two will be. Chespin looks like a possible Grass/Ground to me, which has already been done in Torterra; Froakie looks...well, who knows what he'll turn out as, really.
Gen5 had somewhat promising starters that for the most part failed to deliver. Snivy/Seviper/Serperior is by far the most used starter this gen, and with good reason. It's well designed and well thought out, with a good movepool and decent stats. Tepig is mediocre and unoriginal, being the third Fire/Fighting in a row and by far the worst of them; Oshawott unluckily suffers from the Dragonite syndrome, with decent pre-evos but a lackluster, off-putting final evo that just looks weird. No offense to the old 'nite, but we all wanted something more in the direction of...Dragonair. To make things worse, Samurott doesn't even have the charm of an extra typing, dragon-type or good stats to make up for it.
Gen4 was decently cool, but I always thought they weren't anywhere as awesome as Gen3. To be fair Gen4 was the first generation of pokémon games I never bought, and I never really got into it until Platinum came out. Empoleon and Torterra were just meh in my eyes despite their original typings, and Infernape was just another Fire/Fighting. I didn't buy much into the hype then, and Blaziken was still a fond memory in my heart from my Sapphire/Emerald days. To this day, I have never used Infernape in a pokémon battle.

In Gen3 I saw Torchic/Blaziken and fell in love. Instantly. Mudkip was, well, Mudkip, and shared typing and design similarities with Feraligatr (which I never liked at all), whereas Treecko just never really appealed to me. I've never used either one of the others, since I haven't done that many playthroughs on gen3 games. Blaziken remains one of my best liked starters, however.

In gen2, there was plenty of smooth juice to be had. Totodile was never an option to me, but the rest was very nice. Cyndaquil was the starter I used almost exclusively on my playthroughs; on the other hand, I remember picking up a japanese rom of Gold WAY back and playing with Chikorita for a long time (a ROM which ultimately crashed my parents' computer, but that's a different story), and I still appreciate that starter a lot.

Finally, I've played with all the Gen1 starters at some point, but as with most of us, Charizard is my favorite there. Squirtle was the first one I used - hey, Blue version, check out that turtle thing! - but since there weren't much in the way of Stealth Rock back then, Charizard was a fearsome beast on all fronts. My brother used Venusaur on his Red version for a while, and I remember making fun of him for it.

Point being, aside from the obvious overdose of Fire/Fighting types, there's not much that I can say on the topic of starters; simply because my first impressions of each generation were under such very different circumstances from the other. I have all the Gen1/2 games, and played them a fucking TON. I did have a GBA (which unfortunately suffered from a dead D-pad later on) and I own Sapphire after buying it on a whim, and Gen3 was very enjoyable to me as well, though I didn't play it nearly as much. I was VERY late to the Gen4 party, however, and I never really had much of a relation to those starters to speak of. Gen5 is one I've done a decent amount, and probably the first one I can be somewhat objective on. Still, it's very difficult to classify the quality of starters, simply because of the nostalgia factor.

THAT SAID:
What do you guys think about Gen6?

[Nichi]

I'm on the fence about Gen6, mostly because I never touched Gen5; for me, I found it hard to even think of how they could continue after Gen4, given how the last Pokémon in the National Pokedex as of Platinum was the god of all Pokémon. I mean, you can't top that, and to me it felt pointless to keep going.

I mean, the games are still fun, but Gen5 never managed to draw my interest. Maybe Gen6 will turn that around?

[stewartsage]

Gen 5 is the first generation to actually genuinely interest me since Gen 1.  Sure I played Gen 2 and 3 briefly before dropping them, but 5 just... is intriguing. 

[NejinOniwa]

Gen5 is actually fairly nice all around. And why do you need to "top" Arceus, anyway? I always thought it was way OVER the top to even make something like it in the first place, and I never liked it as a pokemon either.

Gen6...hopefully they'll be able to expand on the gameplay a lot more with the new 3d system.