I always chose Bulbasaur. Infact, in every game I've chosen the Grass-types.
I think when I was younger, I was kind of quiet and left out a lot, a bit like Bulbasaur. The kids at school used to always talk about how cool Charizard was because he looked like a dragon and Ash had one in the TV show. Blastoise had those massive guns popping out of his shell, and they were both on the covers of the two games.
I felt Bulbasaur/Venusaur were so left out. This sounds soooooooooo sad, but I could really relate to them.

And Venusaur was actually the best competitively back then (and still is now), but obvoiusly little kids don't know that.