I don't think there's even a question that Cyndaquil can be comparable to Totodile.
The moment you arrive in Goldenrod, Croconaw gets Ice Punch. Another gym later it gets Surf.
What's Cyndaquil got? Ember until early 30s where it gets to Flame Wheel, and it gets Thunderpunch for coverage only at L36 which is when it's fully evolved. You've likely beaten Pryce's gym by then, so there's not a whole lot of waters still to be thunderpunched at that point, and those who are a bit too tough for Typhlosion (Clair's Kingdra). It's quite poor against Lance's dragons.
GameCorner's Fire Blast costs a fortune, whiffs and has bad PP. You also don't get early ingame Specs like you do in HG/SS.
I'd also like to note that Typhlosion isn't a very effective user of Earthquake, especially if you compare his attack stat to ones belonging to Tauros, Heracross, Ursaring and the like, not to mention STAB users like Nidoking. For crying out loud, Meganium is only 2 points of base physical attack behind Typhlosion.
The moment you arrive in Goldenrod, Croconaw gets Ice Punch. Another gym later it gets Surf.
What's Cyndaquil got? Ember until early 30s where it gets to Flame Wheel, and it gets Thunderpunch for coverage only at L36 which is when it's fully evolved. You've likely beaten Pryce's gym by then, so there's not a whole lot of waters still to be thunderpunched at that point, and those who are a bit too tough for Typhlosion (Clair's Kingdra). It's quite poor against Lance's dragons.
GameCorner's Fire Blast costs a fortune, whiffs and has bad PP. You also don't get early ingame Specs like you do in HG/SS.
I'd also like to note that Typhlosion isn't a very effective user of Earthquake, especially if you compare his attack stat to ones belonging to Tauros, Heracross, Ursaring and the like, not to mention STAB users like Nidoking. For crying out loud, Meganium is only 2 points of base physical attack behind Typhlosion.