Is Charizard the BEST Starter in Pokemon Red/Blue?

Edited by: SimplyAJ ( / simplyaj )
Complete Playlist: • Kanto Solo Challenges
Rules and Explanations
Rules: (1) Only use the one Pokémon in Battle, others for HMs are fine. (2) No Items in battle (3) No Glitches* (4) Set Mode (5) No saving in the Elite Four (6) No evasion moves
Badge Boost "Glitch" Explanation: When you collect odd numbered badges the game boosts a stat by 12.5%. Brock gives ATK, Surge DEF, Koga SPE, and Blaine SPC (in game text is wrong). When any of your stats are modified (even by you using a move like Withdraw, or your opponent using Leer) the badge boosts are re-applied. So If you use Swords Dance, you also gain *an additional 12.5% in Speed/Defence/Special (on top of the 12.5% you were supposed to be getting). When you level up, the game corrects this error, and only the non-glitch 12.5% remains. Because of how difficult it is to avoid, I've allowed for it to be exploited, since opponents will spam Leer/Growl anyways, and this way battles are less random. Red/Blue are extremely buggy, so there's always going to be some glitches present, and because of how unavoidable this one is, it is allowed in runs, and considered more like a special Generation 1 mechanic as opposed to a glitch.

[@thestalost8486]

After you're done with Blastoise, too, I think the perfect Pokemon to do next would be Raichu. As it is somewhat an evolution of a starter.

[@Xpwnxage]

He did Pikachu 4th right? Then he probably is doing Raichu next!

[@Bodhinaut]

Great idea friend!

[@joshuasharrock466]

I mean, isn't this the way we all did it back in the day? I started with Raichu

[@elefantepolski7456]

I believe all of these are pre-recorded

[@derrickscott1630]

I hope so... Raichu is better!

[@michaelangelopicon5691]

Does anyone else watch these and NEVER get tired of Jrose11 explaining the gen 1 game mechanics? I think what sets this channel apart is the commentary and good ability to tell a story.....

[@dublex22]

It’s the most niche content I watch and I love it everytime lol glad I’m not alone

[@tmgthemariogamer3676]

BADGE BOOST GLITCH

[@amtoyumtimmy]

I was just thinking this. It's so calming...

[@JB-nj7nq]

@@tmgthemariogamer3676 rival fival! 😂

[@DanielRyanScott]

Jrose11: "What is the badge boost glitch? Well I have explained it in depth in my other videos, so I wont do that here. But a quick summary is... " (Jrose11 then explains the badge boost glitch in extreme detail for 5 minutes straight) Me: "Ahh yes, classic Jrose" *Sips coffee*

[@firedrake110]

Charizard, talking mad shit about Venusaur: "I'm so fast, I can do whatever I want. Watch me first-try the elite four and rank S with Mewtwo" Dewgong, the first pokémon in the Elite Four: "I'm about to end this man's whole career"

[@theconceptofde4th298]

Congratulations on first trying your arch-nemesis, that ledge on route 22. You inspire us all.

[@firedrake110]

Gyarados is so spooky in this run. Sure, it has a 20% chance to miss *THE* *PUMP* but the odds are the same it just crits and kills you outright lol

[@ext93]

The pump 💀

[@MIrfanPerdana]

I see Gyarados can't help itself from failing NNN.

[@phoebe5114]

I am now and forever referring to Hydro Pump as *THE PUMP*

[@Pyxis10]

My Giant Snake used The Pump.

[@crims0ngrin]

THE PUMP

[@ChrisMcGiggity]

I'm really glad you left in the "okay that part out" . I love when youtubers do these 30 day challenges and we get to gradually see them going insane. I thought for sure with the ammount of times you've played through these games it would have taken a lot longer than 4 days but still pretty funny to see. Praying for your sanity man. Love all the work you put in these videos are absolutely great! PS really hope to hear a count impression at some point during these 30 days! (Or multiple times) I know you think the joke got old but I loved hearing it every video

[@willysmith2990]

One haha, two haha, three haha, four haha… just amazing!

[@daysgobye]

Time stamp?

[@kjartanvalur3960]

@@daysgobye 13:15 and 13:25

[@TheGerkuman]

I love that it's the editor that decided to keep it in, and then clearly JRose enjoyed how it was edited and gave it the thumbs up.

[@dublex22]

One ha ha ha

[@mrgonzalez8838]

I feel like most of Charizard's popularity is because 1) he was one of the only Pokemon that Ash has in the anime that fully evolved, and was very strong ( I wish Bulbasaur and Squirtle evolved) , 2) He reminded people of Dragons, 3) lots of people did really like having it as a starter despite any comparison to the other two

[@N12015]

I would say it is kinda the weakest in its original gen, then the strongest with the stat split, then the weakest again due to rocks, then being carried by megas being overtuned. Venusaur has been consistently better than Blastoise, as simple as that.

[@aritzmartinezrodriguez1825]

I never thought about the fact that charizard was the only final evolution in ash's team. Thats a good point that may hold some weight in Charizard's popularity compared to the other Gen 1 starters. But still I think that mainly (and my favorite one is Venusaur) a dragon is "cooler" overall than a turtle and a weird ¿frog?

[@LiquidDestruction]

Charmander is playing gen 1 in hard mode, we just like the challenge.

[@Desh2012]

Idk playing through gen1 with Charizard didn’t really feel all that hard tbh. Maybe because most didn’t force themselves to use only one Pokémon but using Charizard really teaches you about using the other Pokémon more because the other two are very easy to use vs Brock.

[@luizbezerra4373]

It's not hard to figure out: between a flower frog, a turtle with cannons, and a freaking dragon, the dragon is much more appealing to kids

[@travisromero9528]

I absolutely love the month of Jrose. I can watch all of his previous gen stuff, but I still have the new generation content I get to watch after this. I wish every month was Jrose month…

[@moonrabbit99]

I would love to see you doing the same with Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise but in gen 3! Would definitely be interesting to see the comparison with their more diverse move pools. Anyway, keep up the great work! 😁

[@bdt2002gaming]

From what I can guess, he likes RBY’s unique mechanics more, and the Gen 3 Kanto games also have that little bit with the Sevii Islands. I’d like to see this too, but I’m not sure it would be something he’d be interested in.

[@Neceroe]

@@bdt2002gaming though he does prefer rby he has done frlg in the past more than once so entirely possible

[@lizard1255]

@@bdt2002gaming you can skip the Sevii side plot can't you?

[@bdt2002gaming]

@@lizard1255 To be honest, I can’t remember

[@chucktaylor2172]

The month of Jrose is upon us and I'm very happy about this. Merry Christmas to all of us huh? Thank you Jrose for the videos you give us. I love them. This channel and Mr Ballen and Swagkage are my favorite channels and it's not even close

[@AndrooTheNerd]

Charizard really started to get better in Gen VI with its Mega Evolutions but I’m very curious to see how he does here. There’s not a lot of Rock moves in the game to handle him either.

[@kaptainKrill]

No, but there is both Aurora Beam from Lorelei and Hydro Pump from Lance. Those tend to be roadblocks for Pokémon weak to ice and water, and Charizard is both.

[@KaoruMzk]

Ironically, the mega that saw competitive play was Y because of drought, even though most people were overhyping the X mega for being a dragon... on the same generation that introduced fairies lol

[@AndrooTheNerd]

@@KaoruMzk I believe the Fire/Dragon at least offsets since Fairy isn’t very effective against Fire IIRC. It has that going for it but yes Y was definitely better IMO.

[@AndrooTheNerd]

@@kaptainKrill Right I can see Lance being a roadblock for sure. At least with Lorelei Fire is neutral against most of her team.

[@billy_naing]

@@AndrooTheNerd In Gen 1, Fire does not resist Ice.

[@powerplay9422]

Jrose: Please edit this out AJ: I shall not!

[@gasparguruoftime5475]

The Venusaur/Charizard vids have been a blast to me for a personal reason. I've always loved Charizard the most, and as a kid I'd only train my starter like most people did. I could *never* beat the Elite Four with him solo though, even though he was in the low 70s; I'd get as far as Dragonite if I was lucky. I remember getting frustrated and restarting to choose Bulbasaur. Solo Venusaur is what finally allowed me to beat the game (complete with Body Slam Spam™). Watching this video and seeing why is so fascinating, right down to the Dragonair/Dragonite Agility spam against Venusaur being what most likely pushed me over the hump to finally winning way back then. Good times. So anyway, even though Charizard is still my favorite, I can somewhat verify Venusaur as the better solo of the two.

[@matthewnoland2008]

This is gonna be one hell of a month man! Keep up the awesome work Jrose!

[@olenweaver298]

If you notice not a single pokemon weak to hydro pump is in the A tier maybe that's something you should consider since that's what slows most their progress. You probably could of won off just a missed hydro and a second swordsdance against a Dragonair.

[@DemonVermin]

Well… I think the idea is that unlike Brock where you literally get screwed because you have no options, the E4 is where you should have a majority of the options available to you. As such, there will be no handicaps for the points you struggle there. If Agatha can bump someone down, Gyarados can and should.

[@DisplayThisOkay]

Being slowed down by counters is how Pokemon is supposed to work. Zapdos would beat Mewtwo if there were no pesky Rock/Ground types but there are and that's why it's scored like it is.

[@olenweaver298]

Let's be real electric types don't have anything slowing them down besides maybe Brock in the beginning and that just depends on the starting moves they have. I'm just saying the fact that fire clearly has a harder time against the elite four just bc there are actual good water moves being used while electric has it easy bc Bruno is a joke and rhydon never stops anyone. Obviously Pokemon is about types countering others but when a run is measured by level and time but one Pokemon stopping the run for over a hours time proves how some types just have a clear advantage in this gen while others struggle.

[@DisplayThisOkay]

@@olenweaver298 looks like someone didn't watch the zapdos video. Bruno was the only e4 member that even posed a real threat. His onix were the perfect counters to it even when locked into rage. It got so bad that jrose had to mimic ice punch off hitmonchan just to Win and that wasn't even a consistent strategy cuz hitmonchan was the second one sent out. Also rhydon and golem are use primarily in competive for their ability to wall electrics.

[@kaptainKrill]

@@DisplayThisOkay hard to believe the zapdos video is over 2 years old. Lots of folks here probably started watching long after and haven’t gone back. Then again, as someone who subbed right after the charmander run, I’m shocked we’re coming up on 3 years for this madness. Where has the time gone?

[@chicarbiomed]

Perfect video to listen before I fall asleep to nap while I’m sick. Good nostalgia right into dream land

[@snakeywakey3893]

If it had its 109 Special (attack) of later gens, I bet it would have been really good.

[@xard4spl]

One of the very few content creators that I actually watch back to back when a new video is posted. And then usually go and watch a couple of the old ones for good measure 😁 Thank you Jrose11!

[@OtakuJuanma2]

The whole schpeal "no just kidding, edit that out" was hilarious. Thank you editor for NOT editing that out.

[@Alice..M]

Just finished the venusaur video before bed last night and now I can watch this while eating dinner! Thanks jrose!

[@primobrickhouse]

Hell yes!! Long live Jrose and his pokemon challenges!!!!! Day 4

[@joshuasharrock466]

I get it.. Charizard is hot but.. Blastoise is going to be a blast

[@21stcenturyrambo16]

I think your doctor can give you a cream for that.

[@joshuasharrock466]

@@21stcenturyrambo16 yeah I used the voice type and noticed a problem

[@MazterP28]

And Venusaur is gonna leaf the battle

[@joshuasharrock466]

@@MazterP28 I'm sure we're gonna make Jrose proud with the corn in this thread

[@adrthegreatball4596]

I got off early from work today and have a week off right as you started the 30 days of uploading. The stars aligned perfectly.

[@jkip974]

Did I really just notice that your former intro music has it's own remix now in the background at the start of the video? It sounds great and I feel stupid I didn't hear that earlier! Thanks for entertaining us JRose!

[@Beller94]

We needed jrose month. Love having videos from you this often!!!!

[@Marcomanexists]

Been watching this series since the first episode. Can’t believe it’s been nearly 3 years! I never get tired of your uploads

[@chardellgill]

Loving these every day uploads!!! Keep em coming!!!

[@davidbenjamin8265]

Back when I was a kid I remember bringing my game boy with me when my Dad took me to work with him. It was a school arranged take your kid to work day. He worked in downtown Cleveland and had to go to the courthouse a lot. My Charmeleon evolved into Charizard when I was with him in document storage.

[@SodonaBalalaica]

Watching JRose slowly descending into madness is the best way to unwind after a long day 😁 Thanks for another great run mate best month ever ✌️

[@sippa-t9856]

I watch these while i'm working during the day. i work long hours and they help pass the time. thank you for cozy commentary, JRose! been a fan since the Magikarp solo run!

[@Merricktherox]

Wow, I was just catching up to your most recent uploads and already blessed with another one!

[@halfjaw3367]

Commenting for the algorithm, as well for my favorite poke. Your content is amazing and loving the month of Jrose, can’t wait to see Blastoise if he arrives on turkey day! Enjoy the holidays everyone

[@sammy7335]

God I love, LOVE it when you use an orange pokemon palette. It just looks so damned classy

[@imdeonerik]

This has been awesome to watch these, thanks for the month

[@jaynelson7564]

I'd like to point out for those that have been missing the theme song intro, he actually played it in the background for like the first minute

[@holdenwoofter5896]

Having a video to watch while I eat my lunch at work everyday is a good send! Loving the consistent content

[@davidshepard-alenko4232]

This fiery boy is my childhood. So much love for the mon. Charizard was just the coolest thing in the world to me as a 7-year-old. A pleasure to watch, as always Jrose. Thanks for the awesome content!

[@wswordsmen]

As a Venusaur shill, I approve that it totally outclassed Charizard in this challenge.

[@quinceekingston4335]

Always love seeing your videos come out!

[@Bodhinaut]

TWO IN ONE DAY MY BRO?!? I LOVE YOU MAN!!! 😂

[@Awesomnialistic]

Love these videos and love even more that they’re daily now!! You’re spoiling us (don’t stop haha)

[@daltonking6956]

Ah, the most nostalgic run for me, basically how my boyhood runs would go, with a Pikachu and what ever else I felt like filling my team with be. It didn't matter what the rest of my team was I had Charizard and he was going to be doing all the work

[@xgalex6191]

Man I'm so hyped to see these videos again!

[@sparkywayne6766]

Ahoi JRose I´ve got a pretty dry month with work und studying before me. I genuinely look forward to your videos after work. They are perfect for calming down and appreciate something I absolutly love. Thank your for your hard work and dedication.

[@iiBULLETTii]

Jrose I have been binge your videos and have loved them all! The most Annoying part now is that I gotta wait till you release your next one.. I should have taken my time as watching your videos urges me to watch more!! Absolutely love the content dude!.

[@conza1989]

Loving the month of Jrose, plenty of content I can't even keep up

[@RoyArkon]

Excellent work once again dude, keep it up!

[@michaelt4663]

Loving the months of videos so far. My wife was in the room and asked if a no money spent run was ever done. Keep up the great work

[@LINKRETROGAMING]

Your videos are amazing, it truly shows and compares what is the best Pokemon for the adventure!!! I love Charizard and want to give a try to Speedrun with him, any% no in battle items right? here you have a new subscriber, also recently new content creator of retro games! KEEP GOING!😁

[@balthazare18]

Noticed the upload rates gone up, hope you don't get burnt out but so long as you don't it's a win for us

[@kalkuttadrop6371]

Someguy calculated that, with ALL trainers taken into account(not just Gyms), Blaistoise is the best option type wise. It also has a decent move pool and avoids Venesaurs biggest drawback of psychic weakness and Charizard's biggest drawback of earlygame struggle. I expect it to do decently well, but only get a couple spots above Venesaur, probably around Snorlax

[@ClaraFinn]

Blastoise's only badge boost move is Withdraw while Venusaur got both Growth and Swords Dance, and it's slower and has lower Special than Venusaur. I can't see it beating Venusaur for this challenge specifically, Venusaur wasn't really held back by its Psychic weakness that much because Psychics all have terrible defence. Venusaur also benefited from the good AI problem with trainers like Lance

[@lenlimbo]

Agatha's lottery may put a dent on Blastoise 's performance. It doesn't have the status moves of Venusaur, nor the speed of Charizard

[@sheer_1]

The problem with your analysis is that these challenges entail a minimal amount of battles, minimizing the importance of being effective against random trainers and maximizing the importance of effectiveness against gyms and the E4. Blastoise is almost certainly going to be below Venusaur.

[@ClaraFinn]

@@sheer_1 I can’t see how the final evolutions are going to differ much from the first stages, they share many of the same strengths and weaknesses, and Squirtle was significantly worse than Bulbasaur and quite a bit behind Charmander too. Which shocked me at the time honestly, but with my increased knowledge of how this generation and Jrose’s challenges work since the start of this series, it does make sense

[@kalkuttadrop6371]

@@ClaraFinn Nope

[@semihkarabas6185]

Love this keep going Jrose!

[@damianworrell803]

Great vid and great effort to keep posting. Keep it up man

[@zanon__]

I love how youtube just places the silly overlays on top of the tables so that you essentially have to pause to read 8) Also if I may make a suggestion, it might be better if you kind of "highlight" every time there's a new entry to the final standings on the final time tables you show. It both makes it easy for people to find out exactly where the run they just watched is placed at, at it may help colourblind people navigate through it. Perhaps adding a small icon for each "coloured category" just to ensure it is easy to figure out :)

[@filthy_peasant_the_one2134]

These daily uploads are fantastic

[@TrueN8-bit]

Yeah, that's about what I expected. A very solid effort throughout the game, but just has so much difficulty with that wall at the end. Charizard is great. Maybe if Gen 1 was set up a bit differently it would be number 1 among starters. But as is, Gyarados creates either a luck barrier or a power barrier, it's a pick the best of bad options situation. So as is, Venusaur is better than Charizard. But will Blastoise prove to reign supreme? I personally don't think so, since in battle items are not allowed in this challenge (which makes a huge difference), but I look forward to finding out. Fun Video.

[@Manuel_Flaggschiff]

Love those Videos, It's pure nostalgic for me :D

[@Leartes20]

Yes Charizard my fav Pokémon ever - a gift that keeps giving thanks jrose!

[@poliant9683]

the misty sprite looks actually perfect in this color palette lol

[@matiashall1758]

You're on fire lately!

[@jonasjonsson1463]

Excellent video, looking forward to the next one

[@philiphamel8504]

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. I'm thankful for the month of JRose.

[@masterdex9508]

Nice run, wasn't expecting Charizard to do so well!

[@DrPotatoSkins]

Love these new videos, hope your holidays go amazingly, and can't wait to watch more from the Month of Jrose! For the run after Blastoise I have a tough question: Which Gen 1 Fire-type is worth using your Fire Stone on? You've done Eevee and Flareon, now how about Growlithe/Arcanine and Vulpix/Ninetales? As a massive Arcanine fan, I would like to know which is best

[@edwardcollins8102]

Arcanine, easily. Notice how Blaine doesn't have Ninetales (Neither does the Rival, for that matter).

[@patrickfrei9322]

Came home from an evening full of beer... was cool. But i came home to this, this is amazing! 🧡🖤

[@garylloyd9949]

After gen 1 is done. I'd love to see how this running tier list would compare to on for fire red and leaf green.

[@dimensiongamer534]

The month of Jrose has been a real blast so far, cheers!

[@cool3dd]

Awesome video so excited to see how Blastoise does

[@Learnjapanesefromsomeguy]

After having done so many of these videos, I would definitely consider you a Pokémon expert. I think it would be fun to give us (the viewers) a guess/prediction of the time you think each Pokémon will end up with before you start the run. I imagine that you could guess relatively accurately, but it would be fun to see how close your prediction and the actual result would be.

[@roamingnyiad]

Going to say it right away as I watch this vid: LOVE the full remix to your opening jingle playing in the background. Did you have it for a while and I just missed it or was this a recent thing? Also is this remix to your opening theme even on KZbin anywhere? I'd love having it to listen to...no seriously, I would. This would be similar to video game music I listen to a lot on my phone, some of which is POKEMON related! =)

[@Ryan-xo9tf]

Jrose is definitely in my top 5 favorite KZbinrs. Cheers mate

[@Lukavitahdu1]

Didn't do so well for one I have loved so long... hopefully my little Sandshrew makes me proud when it's his turn

[@maxtornogood]

Always good to finish on a *NICE* level!

[@MikeSkinnerAudio]

Love this channel so much

[@grifftown]

Charizard finally here! Iconic pokemon, but with the Gen 1 wackiness I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes. 🔥 Should be interesting

[@berenerchamion4998]

So glad to see Venu above Charizard! ❤

[@bobbyreeder6874]

Love your gem 1 solo run videos. Once you have done them all in order you should release them all on video. I would totally buy a signed copy 👍

[@onthehunt2297]

Great job Jrose and I had a feeling about charizard not being the high tiers

[@KINGBADASS100]

When you’re done with the starters, I’d really like to see you do a video for Vulpix!

[@EEHEEH10]

I would be funny if st the end of the video Jrose will say "btw kadabra is not my favorite pokemon, it's actually charizard. Haha I tricked you"

[@Igorcastrochucre]

The sad part is, Jrose just did Moltres, arguably the best Fire-types, the Charmander line, the only one with some coverage, and Ponyta, the strongest pre-evo, so every Fire run after this one is gonna be miserable.

[@GymLeaderMatt1987]

Vulpix is actually deceptive. It was in my top 5 pre-evolved mons for a while.

[@perkypenguin1663]

Fire types in Gen 1: oh boy! The game has been quite smooth! Surely I’ll destroy the last of the game! Lance: allow me to introduce myself

[@ChiNOo2211]

Jrose is the best bar none!!! Keep it up man the month of jrose is upon us gather and give thanks

[@FreeSpeechArtandWrestling]

I really love your Andy Warhol tint. Every Pokémon you give it a special tint for the game

[@manuelmoreno2778]

i dont usually comment but thank you so much for these videos coming out quickly

[@Sorrowisyourdemon]

The orange and purple color palette is 🔥

[@luckyrapidflower]

Another video already! I guess Jrose has hit a stride.

[@SquallLionhart409]

Regarding Hydro Pump missing, there is a a 4/5 chance for Hydro Pump to hit per attack. This means there is a 16/25 for two to hit in a row. That's better than 1/3 for at least one missing. It also means that you have a 59% chance of getting a miss in two attempts (four total Hydro Pumps) meaning that "lucky" misses really aren't that lucky. It is actually UNlucky to have two attempts at Gyarados both die to Hydro Pump.

[@a__smith]

its such a simple little thing but i LOVE the palettes on the gen 1 solo runs, its a really nice touch

[@RK-cj4oc]

YEESSSS. thank youuu. keep up the great work

[@willysmith2990]

LET’S GOOOOOOO!!! Thank you Jrose 🎉🎉🎉

[@bobjones4469]

I remember playing this as a kid, I picked Charmander and it was the only Pokemon I used. I pretty much one shotted every Pokemon in the game, and this is a small part of the reasons I grew out of Pokemon so fast, they are such simple and easy games. I also didn't care about collecting Pokemon. I suppose these two reasons why I grew out of Pokemon are the very same ones why Pokemon is such a behemoth of a franchise, casual gamers like the simplicity, the easiness, and the collecting.

[@bodkin8914]

Thanks for the video. I enjoyed it very much

[@raybarlow9310]

Its popping off today all starter 3rd forms!

[@lohnesj95]

Jrose really needs to hit 300k with all of this fantastic content he's been putting out.

[@The13thKnight]

Have you ever considered doing a Light Orb Pikachu run just for curiousity’s sake? A real glass cannon, but could be fun for an easier challenge

[@TheMagicalAnimatron]

The come down at the end of the month is going to be killer...

[@roamingnyiad]

Finished and Charizard did surprisingly alright though apparently still had some difficulty in choice parts. Here I thought Gen 1 would've just mis-treated the 'Zard with BOTH Brock and Misty back to back, but only Misty actually mattered out of the early game trainers. Anyway, cool to see these again and I see Blastoise either doing SUPER-amazingly OR INEXPLICABLY poorly, based on how these solo runs go. I would THINK coverage for Blastoise SHOULD be good, but...yeah! Hope to see this trilogy of fully evolved starters reach its fitting conclusion soon!

[@N12015]

I think it will be in the middle. He now should know that using withdraw to boost should be a good strategy... I hope he fixes the silly mistake of not using withdraw to badge boost.

[@jj48]

The rival's Blastoise with Charizard's color scheme looks rather terrifying.

[@johngard6795]

The month of JRose is the best month.