Watch the stampede to play Zelda on the last day of E3

There's a very good reason why people are running toward Nintendo's booth: It's amazing.

(You can see that in action in the video above.)

It isn't just a booth dressed up in the colors and art of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and a playable demo — it's an experience.

The experience starts inside a shrine pulled from the game, where people watch a video similar to the game's official trailer.

As the video ends, doors into the booth burst open, revealing a variety of locations and scenes from the game. For instance, people will see Link shooting an arrow at a Guardian, and a Bokoblin roasting a giant piece of meat over a fire as another Bokoblin surveys the booth from a tower.

A massive scrim mural runs the length of one side of the booth, depicting a view over Hyrule. Light effects make it appear as if lava is flowing from the mural's volcano and mists swirl around the land's distant mountains.

The floor of the booth is carpeted in green, with a few artificial trees located around the setting, but patches of live grass and real bushes also dot the scene, lending not just a nice visual touch but the smells of an outdoor meadow.

In one corner, there is a picture of food found in the game being cooked over a campfire. A hidden trigger in the floor causes the food to jump around, just as it does in the game, when people walk by it.

The final prize for the morning booth sprint, and lines that can last up to four hours, is a chance to play the game. There is a second line just for those who want to watch the video and tour the booth, but they don’t get to play the game.

There are 140 kiosks set up for the public to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Wii U.

Unlike traditional gaming kiosks, these are all located below eye level, ensuring that the landscape of the booth remains unobstructed from the reality of what it's designed to promote.

From outside, the booth is a conundrum, a walled-off expanse of floor space, an island of plain white walls in a sea of booths competing for attention with flashy graphics and noisy videos.

Inside, the lands of Hyrule are populated with smiling players visiting something more akin to an amusement park attraction than a E3 gaming exhibit.

You can also check out Nintendo’s on-the-scene video of the Zelda run from Wednesday.

The last time an E3 booth saw this sort of fan reaction was in 2006, the year that the company first allowed people to get their hands on the Wii and its motion controls.

Here’s one take from 2006.