They were right about the fighting moves. They were right about the low population of fire types. It makes a great dual type Pokemon. If you nedd more defense just give it tons of items. And one more thing. I've been experimenting wih all of my games, and like one of the others said, once chimchar evolves, the gyms are WHOOPED. See, each starter has more than types. This goes into consideration when planning a good team: The fire types are hard to control at the start (and usually get whipped by the gym leaders), but as you get farther in the game and raise your chimchar to a reasonable amount per day,week,etc. the game will become easier. In other words, fire types are hard at start and easy at end. Vice versa for water types. Grass types are at a minimal, so the difficulty seems to stay the same throughout the game. The game designers probably had this along with the rest of game mechanics, because I've noticed this pattern in every Pokemon game. So I think you should choose Chimchar (but still, that's just my way of playing)