Which Gen had the worst starters?

I really can't speak for IV and V. Personally, I think most of the Pokemon from both suffer from being too convoluted in design (5 moreso). That'd be enough to vote 'em down, but I won't do that.

So between the first three, probably Generation III. They're all off to a great start as Treecko, Torchic, and Mudkip, but then they each have some kind of awkward evolution somewhere along the way. Marshtomp looks creepy, Sugimori's intepretation of Combusken appears derpy, and Sceptile doesn't look half as good as Grovyle did. Swampert's a little questionable, too. That's basically 3 and a half strikes.

The only weird evolution in Generation I, to me, is Venusaur and that's because he's so flat looking. Gen II only has one as well, Feraliwhatevertheheckyournameis, it just looks... oddly underfed and disturbing. The Chikorita line manages to stay cute throughout, which has got to be some kind of miracle. That makes up for Gen II's shortcomings alone.

As for the poll, I'm gonna stay out of that since I have no formal knowledge of IV and V.

Edit: Whoooaaa~ Okay, so I don't think Combusken is as bad as I said anymore. Camping Combusken can be cool. It's one of those "depends on the artist" things, though, which honestly can negate negative feelings on any Pokemon, thus making making "worst anything" polls an excercise in futility. Anyway, thanks to Musical Combusken, it is no longer stupid. However, I've edited the above to mention Sugi's design because it's still kind of derpy regardless.

Much though I love the games, I had to vote for gen V having the worst starters.

Personally, I really dislike the gen II starters, but they're at least not bad. The gen V starters though - the only one that's really late-game viable is Samurott, and a lot of that is due to the shortage of other waters in the Unova dex. Emboar is okay, but it's not even as good as the past Fire/Fighting starters and has a lot of competition in this gen from other, and better, Fire types. And poor Serperior is outclassed almost immediately by either Lilligant or Leavanny, depending on your preferences. Coil helps a bit, but it's too little, too late.

Sinnoh had the worst starters. They were horrid and not even good looking. I really hated them.

I think Gen IV had the worst starters for me. I don't really know how to work with them in-game. All generations have a starter I don't like but I don't like any of the Sinnoh starters at all. But I guess I don't like Sinnoh as a whole to be honest.

Close 2nd is Johto/Gen II. But they get better over time.

Unfortunately Gen V and III. Though some of the starters get some awesome Dream World Abilities (Speed Boost Blaziken and Contrary Serperior are noteworthy) they don't have much moveset options and end up most of the time outclassed both in-game and metagame.

I got to say Gen V. Gen I has Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur, Gen II had Totodile and Cyndaquil, Gen III had Mudkip and Treecko, Gen IV had Piplup and Turtwig and Gen V only has Oshawott and I don't even really like it. Gen V was also the first generation in which I ditched my starter before beating the E4.

Based on appearence Gev V.I only like tepig and snivy their evolutions oshawot and its evolutions NO!

Gen V had bad starters. I researched which one I should pick, and ended up taking Snivy, turned out to be a bad decision, restarted and chose Oshawatt, still not that great. Restarted again, and picked Tepig. Still really bad, but I was tired of restarting. My final team in White was this:
Hydreigon
Unfezant
Krookodile
Carracosta
Excadrill
Stoutland
No starter


I think that Gen I, Gen II, and Gen III had the best. Charmander, Squirtle, and Bulbasaur were awesome. Cyndaquil, Totodile (Especially Totodile), and Chikorita were decent. Torchic, Mudkip, and Treeko were really awesome (My personal favorites). Gen IV starters were good, just not good enough, Torterra, Infernape, and Empoleon looked amazing, but were just too susceptible to type disadvantages early in the game. Later on they were really good to have.
All that's just personal preference, though.

I say Gen IV with Sinnoh's starters. The design was mainly odd and not as interesting as previous generations to me, I just don't feel anything with them like I do with the other gens, this doesn't mean I hated my little Twiggy though xD

Definitely Gen 2. That was the only gen I didn't have a starter I truly loved. I made do with a Chikorita though. (back then I wouldn't throw away a starter) There wasn't even a starter in gen 2 that I disliked, they just seem drab compared to the other starter sets.

Each gen usually has a starter I love, one I don't like and one I'm initially neutral on but grow to like it in time.

Basing my opinion solely on the starter Pokemon designs, Gen 4 or 5.

Amazingly, it's not 3rd gen.

Worst in battle, I think the 5th gen ones.

I absolutely cannot stand Charizard and Blastoise. So I'll have to bite the bullet and say first. The only other starters I don't like are Emboar and Torterra.

I'm going to dive in head-first and say gen 1 had the worst overall.

Competitively, Blaziken, Infernape, and Empoleon are arguably the best starters to use (not counting Dream World abilities, in which case Blaziken and Serperior sweep the competition away). The gen 1 starters aren't that amazing in terms of stats or movepools. And don't even get me started with Charizard's best friend Stealth Rock. The gen 2 and gen 5 starters aren't much better, though, so that leaves me with design.

Design-wise, gen 1 also happens to be my least favorite. I don't mind when some Pokemon in an evolutionary line look similar, but I think Bulbasaur-Ivysaur and Charmander-Charmeleon were a bit too much in that regard. Out of the three starters, I only like one form from each line (Charizard, Wartortle, and Bulbasaur) in terms of design, whereas each other gen I like the designs of many more.

GEN V. Snivy was basically useless. Oshawott's last evolution doesn't even look like it belongs... And Tepig and his evolutions barely learn any fighting moves despite them being half fighting. I didn't really like the designs for any of them and their usefulness wasn't that great either.

I really hate the Gen V starters. To me, they were all really weak in some way, and I found them hard to use. Not only that, but their designs were also pretty poor. Overall, Gen V was the worst and hardest to use for me, but I liked the Gen IV starters the best. :/

As much as I love my Samurott, 5th gen starters were underwhelming. Best starters come from Hoenn, imo. My favorite starter, however, is Piplup.

I'm really surprised by the statements of some people here, guess we all have our strengths and weaknesses when playing...

Charizard for example. I would never rank him among the worst starters. I just finished a FRLG playthrough and he was probably my most dependable Pokémon. High Special Attack and Flamethrower mowed through opponents easily. I'd say that, once you get past Misty (which is easy with a Pikachu/Gloom/Weepinbell), it's smooth sailing with Charizard, even more so than Venusaur, which may have a type advantage against most gyms, but suffers a lot in certain points of the game (like Pokémon Tower and Silph Co.) and doesn't have many good offensive moves. For general trainer beating, Charizard is superior to both Venusaur and Blastoise.

Charizard was also really helpful against the E4. When I needed generally strong firepower (no pun intended), he did the job well, and with Dragon Claw learned through TM, he was really good against Lance.

He used to be crap in RGBY, because of low Special, but the 2nd gen Special split did wonders to Charizard, until Stealth Rock came along to ruin his usability. Still a strong force for in-game use, though. Learns lots of interesting moves, and is generally a powerful attacker.

I think that it's clearly 5. None of them have any standout stats (except Serperior's speed I suppose) and their movepools aren't anything special either. They do look pretty cool though, if that counts for anything.

Emboar has huge attack and HP and... not much else really.

The problem with 5th gen starters is their moves. They don't learn anything destructive enough. The starter is supposed to be the Pokémon you use to handle difficult situations, because all starters have strong stats, and I can't imagine myself doing that with Serperior for example. It's worse than Meganium FFS.