The first games, released in 1998, were "Pokémon Red and Blue", which became big hits and are still among the best-selling video games of all time. They followed the adventures of the player, a Pokémon trainer who catches, raises, and battles with Pokémon, collects badges from the 8 Gym Leaders, explores all over Kanto (the region), and trades Pokémon with other people who have the game by using the Game Boy's Game Link Cable. Later, a sequel to "Red" and "Blue" was released: "Pokémon Yellow". In this game, the player's character design is similar to Ash Ketchum (from the anime.) Also, instead of the Pokémon given to the player at the start of "Red" and "Blue" (the player can choose Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle) in "Yellow" the only possible choice is Pikachu, which represents the Pokémon Ash started with in the anime.