Charmander Has Been Voted The Best Starter Pokémon Ever

The first Pokémon you ever started with will always be the one closest to your heart.

It's the same reason people say The Phantom Menace was the best Star Wars film, or why your dad says footballers from the 70s were better than Lionel Messi.

Now people have been choosing the favourite critter they started with on their Pokémon adventures and have decided that the best one is... Charmander.

Yep, Pokémon fans on the ranking website Ranker chose the cute little fire lizard from Pokémon Red and Blue as their favourite starter from the game's seven generations - and it doesn't seem to be a controversial pick.

CHECK OUT THE WOMAN WITH THE WORLD'S LARGEST POKÉMON COLLECTION:

The Ranker poll covers all seven of the game's generations spanning from the game's first first generations to the latest iterations Pokémon Sun and Moon, which came out in 2016.

Looking at the results, it's easy to think that nostalgia might have had a big influence on this poll, as starters from the first two Pokémon generations (1996 - 2002) dominate the top five.

Behind Charmander, Squirtle and Cyndaquil won second and third place at the time of writing with Totodile and Bulbasaur coming just behind. Are millennials just pining for their childhoods again?

Meanwhile, franchise mascot Pikachu - the only starter you could pick in Pokemon Yellow - sat in a mediocre ninth place. That's what you get for refusing to evolve, mate.

PA

Of course, where there are winners, there must be losers, and according to voters on Ranker, people just don't like a. new things and b. Grass types.

All the starters from the latest pair of games, Sun and Moon, are in the bottom seven out of 22, while there are five Grass types in the bottom nine. Pity poor Popplio, the circus sea lion, who is currently bottom of the lot.

It's not just that Charmander is popular with the fans as he also appears to be popular with critics too - we can't decide whether being a bona fide Pokemon expert is the coolest or lamest job ever.

Charmander also tops Digital Spy and The Gamer's list of best starter Pokemon, in part due to his cool evolutionary line. To be fair, Charizard is hard as hell and he flies, so it's understandable why people consider his kid form to be the best.

There you have it then - Charmander is the best starter. Shame he can't help you against Brock or Misty though.

Topics: GAMING, Technology, Community

Chris Ogden

Chris Ogden is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from the University of East Anglia with degrees in English Literature and Creative Writing before completing his NCTJ Diploma in Multimedia Journalism. Chris has previously written for the independent culture magazine The Skinny, among other publications.

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