I went for Oshawott initially purely for Samurott, which is my favourite fully-evolved starter. Overall design-wise Snivy's line is the strongest, with no real weak links. Pignite, Dewott and Oshawott are pretty awful in my opinion. I'd actually rank the starters Tepig > Snivy > Oshawott, but Oshawott overcompensates by evolving into the most awesome 3rd stage.
I agree with the general consensus that making Pignite/Emboar part Fighting-type was a bad shout, but I did like what they did by making them slower and harder-hitting than Blaziken and Infernape - Infernape's typing actually irritated me more as whilst it was a cool design it just completely out-competed Blaziken in battle, whereas Emboar's a different creature entirely.