Blue, Bulbasaur. Thought that was back in the day when i really lacked the patience to play an RPG right through, so i only got through the first four gyms, got stuck on Sabrina, then borrowed three overpowered level 50 pokemon from a friend of mine and cleared the second four gyms, then cheated my way through the rest with the power of the Missingno. glitch and a Mew given by a friend with a GameShark.

Really, Pearl was the first pokemon game i played legitimately all the way through. I caved even quicker on Silver, getting stuck on Whitney (the Normal type gym leader, damn her Miltank), and borrowed a friends' Skarmoray, then began trading from my Blue version to get exactly what i needed to fight each gym leader, then traded over my top-tier Blue team to beat the elite four there, too.

Blue version- Raised a Charmander and only a a charmander. Went to the elite four with a lvl 85 charizard and the rest were lvl 3-20.