I think that there should be a mini-route between the town and the forest. We haven't had ANY minor NPC battles yet I think (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm being lazy and not re-reading the thread >.>) and there are normally a good few before the forest. If we did have a route before the forest it would probably have 2-3 trainers.
Did we ever introduce type advantages? If we added some bugz to this route and have some sort of thing with a level 10 Fletchling (the level it learns Peck, its first flying move) we could show something. Or maybe that's too basic.
Either way the unfortunate thing is that most viable bugs are like Pinsir, Heracross, and Scizor, in that they don't have a lame starting form, creating a bit of a power imbalance this early on. Shroomish seems a good choice, maybe Venonat, Foongus, Venipede? Tympole? It depends on what the forest's like. Is it a dry forest, wet, haunted, bright and sunny, on fire? I suppose the question is what do we need in terms of making a viable team from the forest.