i think you should use charmander, pro because yes he kicks butt in the first gym and also because you start out a lot in the grass, he can easily wipe out those grass pokemon as soon as he learns any fire moves, i have never played with bulbasaur, and squirtle is kind of hard to play with in the beginning because the water moves only help the grass pokemon but cons of not picking squirtle is you cant get him in the game unless you choose him and he is awesome pokemon(unless you have action replay, i suggest you get action replay and have them all ;)) there are codes on action replay that you can type in and have any pokemon you want