I've just never found snakes to be all that cool*, I personally found Torterra to have the best grass starter design.

*Ironic, since one of my favorite Pokemon of all time is Milotic :lol

One of my favorite Pokémon is also Milotic, so goodness, we agree on something. :lol

Torterra was an underrated design. Many people didn't give him a chance but I thought he was a pretty cool concept with very interesting typing.

I may be accused of heresy for saying this but my least favorite Grass-starter design is Venusaur.

Eh, Venasaur is just an oversized angry looking warty Bulbasaur with its bulb open

Don't worry, I don't like Venusaur either.
And I loved Torterra's design. It's like "What if Venusaur wasn't ugly as sin." :p
Torterra > Sceptile > Serperior > Meganium > Venusaur
Blaziken > Charizard > Typhlosion > Infernape > Emboar
Feraligatr >>> Blastoise > Samurott > Empoleon > Swampert
My ratings of the starters taking only design into consideration.

Ooh, this is going to be fun, here's mine:

Grass
Serperior > Meganium > Torterra > Sceptile > Venusaur

Fire (almost the same as yours)
Blaziken > Charizard > Infernape > Typhlosion > Emboar

Water (hard one this, most are excellent)
Empoleon > Feraligatr > Samurott > Blastoise > Swampert

Several of my friends and myself all think fennekin might end up being fire/psychic or fire/ghost.

Well, I'm gonna rate my starters like this :lol (saying it in card game terms):

Favorite Basic Stage Grass Starter- Turtwig
Favorite Basic Stage Fire Starter- Cyndaquil
Favorite Basic Stage Water Starter- Totodile

Favorite First Stage Grass Starter- Grovyle
Favorite First Stage Fire Starter- Quilava
Favorite First Stage Water Starter- Dewott (But I prefer it's Japanese name, Futachimaru)

Favorite Second Stage Grass Starter- Torterra
Favorite Second Stage Fire Starter- Typhlosion
Favorite Second Stage Water Starter- Samurott (again, prefer it's japanese name Daikenki)

I'm not in that camp. Those are just rumors with no real basis.

Basic Fire: Charmander
Basic Grass: Treeko
Basic Water: Totodile

First stage Fire: Charmeleon
First stage Grass: Servine
First stage Water: Croconaw

I adore the Feraligatr line. When I've played through various games multiple times and their remakes, I have never picked another starter in Johto other than Totodile.

As you could tell, I'm the same way with the Cyndaquil line :lol

Another fun way to decide on favorites!

Favorite Basic Stage Grass Starter- Snivy
Favorite Basic Stage Fire Starter- Cyndaquil
Favorite Basic Stage Water Starter- Piplup

Favorite First Stage Grass Starter- Grovyle
Favorite First Stage Fire Starter- Quilava
Favorite First Stage Water Starter- Dewott

Favorite Second Stage Grass Starter- Serperior
Favorite Second Stage Fire Starter- Blaziken
Favorite Second Stage Water Starter- Empoleon

The Serperior line is probably my favorite, but I just can't deny that Grovyle is cooler than Servine.

OOOOH yes, he brought in Leaf Blade, which is one of the coolest moves around.

Oh yeah man, Leaf Blade made Grass starters good to use. It's still my go-to Grass move, before that the closest was razor leaf, and it wasn't very good.

It's a shame the Physical/Special split made it useless for the Sceptile line to use :p

Is the Sceptile-line a special line? I always assumed that aside from Treecko the Sceptile-line was physical line.

Actually, I have no idea what a good and practical special Grass move is, which is ironic. Any ideas?

giga drain would be good.

Sceptile looks physical, but he's a Special Attacker :p
And Energy Ball is good. More PP than Giga Drain.

Actually, they both have the same PP now, but I agree, Energy Ball is a better move for me.

Indeed. I still hope that we get Ruby and Sapphire remakes though. I also hope for older regions.

But now we have Shell blade

I think we might still see Ruby and Sapphire remakes. My guess is Nintendo and Game Freak saw no need for two series of remakes within the same console's lifespan, even if they were two generations apart (Gen IV and V, both on the NDS). Now with a new generation, and a new handheld for Pokémon, it might be more likely to see remakes again.

Ah, but Razor Shell is a Water move.

Eh. We needed a new physical water move since Aqua Jet was pretty much getting tacked onto everyone.

And the decision to not make R/S remakes in Gen V is obvious. The 3DS was released. Black and White were released in Japan months before the 3DS's launch.
Pokemon has pretty much established itself to be the franchise that sells hand helds. Why churn out 2 remakes for the old hand held when Nintendo is desperately trying to get sales for the 3DS?
It's just in better interest to them to adjust a R/S remake for their newest hand held.

Razor Shell seems like a good move, too bad only the Samurott-line and Shellder can learn it. For all other Water Pokémon I usually use Waterfall as my physical Water move.

well hey they might make it so some other water types can use it

I've never liked Sceptile much personally. In fact I'd go as far as saying its the one starter Pokemon I really didn't enjoy having on my team (Infernape and Emboar notwithstanding, as I've never trained either).

Anyway here's how I'd personally rank the final form starters.

Grass: Torterra > Serperior > Venusau > Meganium > Sceptile
Fire: Charizard > Typhlosion > Blaziken > Infernape > Emboar
Water: Feraligatr > Empoleon > Swampert > Blastoise > Samurott

Choosing between the water types was extremely hard as I have a soft spot for nearly all of them. It looks pretty different ordered by basic forms too :lol

Poor Unowns :lol
http://24.media.tumblr.com/5783680d4...b3hho1_400.png

Those sad little Unown :(

Hm...I see

I have honestly never understood why the Water starters were so popular, having only ever trained Feraligatr (Hey guis, have I mentioned how much I love Feraligatr yet? :p) on a first play through (When replaying games or playing the 3rd game in a series, I'll pick other starters, like picking Empoleon in Platinum or Samurott in Black 2).

See if you can guess my least favourite generation...

Grass: Torterra > Meganium > Venusaur> Sceptile> Serperior
Fire: Typhlosion > Charizard > Emboar > Infernape > Blaziken
Water: Blastoise > Samurott > Feraligatr > Empoleon > Swampert

Hey guys, would you recommend Black and White 2? I enjoyed Black and White, but not as much as previous gens and I still remain unenthused about Black and White 2. I feel like playing because the only other games I've ever missed are Fire Red and Leaf Green.

Gen III! I win?

Not me me you haven't, he's the only water type I've ever trained as well.

i say yes due to they are the gold and silver to black and white one and the fact you can catch most gen pokemon from start is awesome

DING! DING! DING! A Winner Is You!

ehem.. Yeah, Ruby/Sapphire are the worst games for me. Both Pokemon design wise and story wise. The latter I remember nothing of, and I think the only Pokemon designs I like can be counted on one hand.

In other news...

Pokemon Etymology time! My english nerd side always digs this. (credit to bulbapedia for this lot)

So Fennekin is based on a Fennec Fox, a little fella that lives in african deserts. The kin bit is probably from kindle (not the amazon product) as in to set something alight.

Froakie is a combination of Frog and croak. Or possibly froth and croak.

And Chespin is a combination of Chestnut and pin. It could also come from Urchin (aka what we now call a Hedgehog) or Chinkapin, which is apparently a type of chestnut.

I'm personally hoping Chespin is a hedgehog, always wanted one as a pet since we often get them on our garden...

Definitely, even though the region and characters are the same its a very different beast to Black and White. The map is all done in a different order, and there's a nice level of nostalgia in being able to catch previous generation Pokemon in Unova too. Story-wise its a really good sequel too, which is only strengthened if you use the memory link feature.

Just don't expect too much of a challenge :lol

That, and it's a sequel to B/W, rather than an alternate story like Crystal, Emerald, and Platinum.

all third game like Yellow Cyrstal emerald and platnium are all consider Directors cuts

How can they be considered that when the story is slightly different rather than just extended? Alternate is a much better way to describe them.

No, they're not. Only Crystal could be considered a DC.
Emerald's plot reduces Team Aqua and Magma to footnotes and places more emphasis on Rayquaza and the clashing Legendaries, which is completely different from R/S
And the entire Alternate Dimension plot as well as the altered weather in Platinum is just too different compared to D/P.

What ZeoRangerV says is right. Having owned and beaten all of those, those games are alternate storylines and gameplay rather than extensions-

Yellow- Created to be more similar to the anime, Pikachu is your starter, you can fight Jessie and James, the other 3 starters are given to you.

Crystal- Storyline focuses more on Suicune than Silver and Gold did.

Emerald- Storyline has both Team Aqua and Team Magma, you have to get Rayquaza to stop the conflict between Groudon and Kyogre. Many more Legendaries are accessible due to the tickets distributed at events.

Platinum- Storyline focuses more on Giratina

Thanks for your replies. So:

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/5452/pokemonw2.jpg

Product acquired. Let the games begin!