Zeldathon Wild: The Best Moments So Far and What to Watch This Weekend

There's been a charity marathon unfolding over on Twitch. In the excitement for E3, some might have forgotten that it's that time of year for this year's Zeldathon. Zeldathon is the annual playthrough of the Legend of Zelda franchise by a group of Twitch personalities and avid Zelda fans. This year is a particularly special one for the event, since it's the first one since Nintnedo release The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, with all donation proceeds going towards The WILD Foundation to benefit wilderness conservation.

For those that have missed it so far, Shacknews is revisiting some of this week's most memorable moments. And also, previewing what's slated for the event's final days.

Deaths of the Wild

As one might imagine, Breath of Wild feels a little bit different than the standard Legend of Zelda runs. That's mainly because there's a lot more death. The Zeldathon folks even have a jingle set up and ready to go whenever Link bites it. And there are some memorable deaths to be found throughout the week's Breath of the Wild runs.

Here's Link going toe-to-toe with a Lynel and almost winning. Almost.

Here's Link taking on Waterblight Ganon and failing miserably.

Here's Link getting caught out of nowhere by a jerk on horseback.

There's still plenty of time for death, because the Breath of the Wild runs aren't over yet. In fact, the Zeldathon runners are set to conclude the week with the end of the game later this weekend.

The Donations (-or- "Insert Tidus Laugh Here")

There's something just as mesmerizing as the Zelda runs themselves lurking on the bottom-right of the screen throughout the Zeldathon. It's the donation tracker graphic. There's an animated Legend of Zelda environment, where Link (and friends) will occasionally pop up and open up chests with viewer donations. Many of these are rupees. Several others are exact donation amounts that trigger certain soundbytes.

Waiting for these custom sounds has proven to be one of the most fascinating elements of Zeldathon. For example, $10.10 will trigger Final Fantasy X's Tidus and his annoying laugh, $12.10 will have Doc Brown yell about 1.21 jiggawatts, $20.17 will trigger the Nintendo Switch click, $66.00 will have Emperor Palpatine execute Order 66, and that's just merely scratching the surface. There are far too many to name, but Reddit has helpfully collected the full list.

The most memorable donations include some of the higher amounts that have set off the craziest of these sounds. Here's the crew losing their minds early in the morning hours about a $1,010.10 donation that sets off a Symphony of Ha's.

Prior to that, there was the first $10.10 meme train, which started, appropriately enough, at 10:10AM ET. It was the first, but certainly hasn't been the last.

Then there was the massive $10,000 donation that unlocked the Triforce.

And finanlly, let's remember this Steve Carrell soundbite, which has popped up with precision timing a couple of times during the week. Here he is during A Link to the Past's uber-annoying Moldorm fight.

Prior to that, he popped up for one of the ill-fated 3DO Zelda games and... well... the clip speaks for itself.

There are few custom donation sounds that have yet to pop up, but there are still a few days of Zeldathon left.

Runner Shenanigans

Finally, there are the runners themselves, who infuse massive amounts of personality into playing these games. Whether it's their interaction on the couch or playing around nearby, they've gone a long way to help make watching these games a blast. Let's look back at a few favorites.

Here's the first night, where everyone needed to stretch with some yoga that won't show up on Wii Fit anytime soon.

Here are the runners trying to teach violin lessons in the middle of Tri Force Heroes.

And then there are the many, many trips to the ball pit, including a full-on "This is Sparta!" moment.

What to Look For This Weekend

There are just a few days left for Zeldathon, so here's what to look out for. Friday featrues Ocarina of Time, along with the original Legend of Zelda and Twilight Princess HD. Saturday will see a Wind Waker HD Second Quest run on Hero Mode, followed by a full-blown four-player Four Swords Adventure run.

That sets up the final run on Sunday morning, where the team will look to finish off Breath of the Wild. The Grand Finale goodbyes are scheduled for 5:15PM ET on Sunday, so enjoy the final chaotic moments of Zeldathon on Twitch.tv/SuperMCGamer.

Those looking to donate to the stream can find a link on the Zeldathon website. Over $100,000 has been raised for The WILD Foundation so far. Those that donate over a certain amount are also eligible for prize drawings, including $50+ donors becoming eligible to win a Nintendo Switch with Breath of the Wild.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?