A step back into history and the release of the most hyped game of all time, Zelda: Ocarina of Time. With the N64 struggling to gain any real momentum in Japan upto that point, Nintendo were desperate for OOT to be a success. It did not disappoint. With a perfect 40/40 in Famitsu and nearly half a million sales in week 1 it gave the N64 a new life

http://digg.com/gaming_news/Ocarina_of_Time_number_1_as_hardware_sales_increase_by_763

...........And yet it only provided a small momentary gain in sales and although was a gem of a game, it was a gem on the worst system of all time (by my standards).

OoT was the perfect game on the most imperfect system. I still have my Gold copy of OoT with the gold box, Nintendo Power pack-in stuff, all in 100% mint condition. I think it's worth about $200 now :)

What was wrong with the N64?

Absolutely no RPGs whatsovever. The SNES was the best system of all time when it came to RPGs. Enix, Namco and SquareSoft supported the SNES wholeheartedly, whereas Quest 64 was the first RPG to come out on the N64 atleast 1 year into the lifecycle (which was by far the worst RPG I've played, and I've played alot of RPGs).

Very little 3rd party support - there were a few gems from Rare, Acclaim (KI, Turok), and a few others, but was nowhere near what the PS was, or where the SNES, NES, or even GC were.

 And of course it had the notorious "kiddie" image. That was kinda shattered by Turok 1/2, KI and Conker: Bad Fur Day, but other than those games, the majority weren't that interesting to me. The N64 made me get out of console gaming for years because of how horrid the software was for the system.

It was an amazing system... in some ways. But it completely bombed in others. Mainly, in that it utterly failed against the Playstation. Which is sad when you consider that the playstation was supposed to be a Nintendo system.

As for Zelda. Yup, one of the greatest games of all time. Damnation it was an amazing game. And while it made for a big sales boost. It wasn't enough to breathe new life into the system. The N64 still sold less than the Saturn in Japan.

I just can't thinking what if Nintendo used CD's in N64. Cause other than the cartridges there were nothing wrong with it

Oh SO true. After getting my fill of the wonderful RPGs on the SNES, Robotrek, Lufia, Final Fantasy, Enix's stuff, and oh my God Chrono Trigger!...then having to wait so long just to get......Quest 64. Maaaaaaan. OHHHHH man.

However N64 was the place to be for wrestling games and cool FPS. But it was definitely a letdown from SNES's glory. I still like mine though.

I don't mind the "kiddie image" & in fact I hope Nintendo never seeks to excise this from their identity. This reminds me of Kids Next Door where you must relinquish membership at age 13 because you begin to change and forget what the whole shebang is about at that age. Corrupted.

Just because we've grown up doesn't mean a company should forget about the young ones under us. I believe that is a self-centered attitude that I find distasteful among so-called hardcore gameplayers. It wasn't always like this. People used to just play what was fun and didn't get their droz in a twist 'cause the game looked a little cartoony.

Yoshi's Story did NOT get its proper due or respect. But in the end despite N64's 1st & 2nd party paragons it couldn't save Nintendo from being a market's distant 2nd place in a contest of 3 (later 2).

Zelda was an action RPG/adventure title so the ol' turn-based RPG's I got my fill of in SNES era were seriously lacking and it hurt. Waiting for the N64 to build the library was excruciating! Bad memories of those days.

There's a lesson to be learned from what I said as it pertains to current situations.

John Lucas

N64 failed due to the use of cartridges really vs cds and their generally lazy attitude.

Having said that, in Mario 64 / Goldeneye / Zelda they had probably the three best games of all time

Freakin' Nintendo got way too cocky with their system.

Despite its overwhelming power (96 Mhz vs. 33 Mhz for the PS1), Nintendo crapped on third parties. they thought that with their awesome exclusives, people would make the N64 the dominant system and then the third parties would have no choice but to follow.

The PS1, although being less powerful, was cheaper and friendlier to 3rd parties, and that's what propelled them to success.

 Nintendo's arrogance really screwed them over. Funny how a couple generations change things all around, huh?

Don't get me wrong....I am THE master of Super Smash Brothers and Goldeneye. I got to play SSBM (or whatever the GC version is) against a few people that own the game, and I hadn't played it in ages (about 3 years). Upon playing my absolutely first game of it, I ended up winning with 6 of my 9 lives intact against 2 vet players and a newbie. That kind of feeling was grand.

The N64 had the great 'Party' games, but didn't have what I felt defined the Playstation (inasmuch as what titles defined the NES/SNES).

And again, I can only name 3 N64 RPGs - Hybrid Heaven (didnt play it), Ogre Battle: Person of Lordly Caliber (3rd best RPG of the PS1/N64 era), and Q64 (unimaginable suckiness to the level of which we might never witness in our lifetimes again). To me that was true betrayl - seeing FFVII (FF4 at the time) in Nintendo Power, only to have junk of the 64 (Ogre Battle redeemed it somewhat, but there's no reason to buy a system for 1 game)