Wander into Nintendo’s booth at this year’s E3 video game show, and it’s hard not to be gobsmacked. Instead of banners around kiosks partitioned into gameplay areas, the company’s opted to create a mammoth wraparound abstraction of the open world it’s been fastidiously detailing for its upcoming action-adventure, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Here you’ll find a goblin archer perched on a watchtower. Or a tentacled Guardian menacing the game’s hero, Link, who’s balanced on one foot with bow drawn. Or a cooking pot filled with bric-a-brac referencing a central tenet in the game’s reimagined edible-oriented gameplay.
Glance at the panoramic skyline and you might notice birds in motion. A giant ruined temple occupies most of a corner. Real trees and swathes of grass surround rows of monitors and Wii U consoles, where visitors can take the new game for a whirl. Nintendo says it’s designed everything in the exhibit to scale to visitors, thus you’re seeing these objects and characters as would the protagonist of the game itself.
Here’s a peek at the experience.
