The fact that the gaming medium offers its own fresh narrative possibilities doesn’t stop it from borrowing from other media, of course, especially now in its relative infancy. Games employ still pictures, moving pictures, music, and plain text equally to tell their stories—though not every game has, or needs, a strong narrative. Arcade games relying on fast reflexes often get by with the most perfunctory of stories, because their audience is not particularly interested. There are exceptions, such as the Byzantinely complex relationship of backstories and inter-game links in the one-on-one fighting series Tekken, but most action game stories can be summed up with a couple sentences’ worth of premise and a final "You win!" upon claiming victory. The interest is not in exploring the world or unlocking its secrets but in the adrenaline rush of close victory against vast enemy hordes. Since these sorts of games operate mainly on reflex, it is mostly pointless to think about the game after it is over; the only thing to do is to have another try and get better with practice. The game is fun, and need offer nothing else.
Arcade games follow a similar model to this day, but virtually every game produced for home consoles and personal computers today contains some kind of narrative drive. Even Mario games, which once summed up their stories in the instruction manual, now contain cutscenes and voice acting. The road to this point has been a long one, however.