for every gen..
1st. my very 1st starter was a bulbasaur why? som game book said he was good for the 1st few gyms to get my feet wet. blastoise was next then charizard. charizard was..ok but eventually he was replace by a speed and streght combo of areodactlye and dragonite. (face it that rock/flying combo was really powerful and even rare candied had still a great amount of speed to out speed half the game..and yes he detroyed every charizard i ever faced.
2nd. Cyndaquil..i never played the other starters he facerolled the game for me. and i beleive meganium didnt have much in terms of stab attacks back then and he didnt get anything til gen 4. the water dude..i dont remember him much but also i tend to not use water types the only water type that has ever been leveled by me has been a milotic.
3rd. i picked me a torchic. the other 2 were good but i didnt like treeko til gen 4 for some reason. mudkip was ok but i didnt know he was physical not special..so he didnt appeal to me.
4th. i felt 2 fire/fighting types in a row was lame i hated it. so i didnt even give chimchar a shot, i tried piplup 1st. but he felt really week between 15-36 but when he gained steel it was alot better. turtwig kinda felt faceroll all the way up.but also his ground typing felt more like a weakness then anything else.
5th. i scoped this out way in advance. i agian wasnt gonna give a fire/fighting type a shot, i got tired of water types by this point and the fact i wopuld have tried basulin but he wasnt catchable til he was useless for my team. i was left with snivy. his speed and abilities early on made him a great choice. now to look forward to gen 6..IF I SEE ANOTHER FIRE/FIGHTING TYPE IM GOING TO JAPAN AND GIVING A PEICE OF MY MIND!!!