I get that you love XCX, but let's be realistic, it is not and will not be historically relevant. Nobody will be talking about it in 2035 the way we now talk about the likes of Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, etc.

Also Bayonetta 2 being on Switch will just be remembered as another reason not to keep their WiiU.

Hell I would argue Splatoon 2 hitting its stride on Switch will make it more impactful than Splatoon 1 on WiiU, but Splatoon was still a hit in its own right even if on a successful console and set the foundation for the new IP to begin with.  So I will let that one pass.

One of the biggest issues I had with Wii U was that with a small number of exceptions it felt like Nintendo had lost their ambition and weren't trying their hardest.

That certainly wasn't a problem on the N64.

Woah there! N64 was the bigger strategic disaster?  Nintendo lost around 90 million customers with Wii U, from its no 1 home console of all time to its worst (depending if we count virtual boy).  I guess maybe you are measuring lost third party support, which would sort of be accurate, but While Wii U didn’t have the drama and surprise of losing Square and others the way N64 did — it lost them anyway.

i would also point out that simultaneous to the Wii U upset, 3DS was doing worse than expected.  Then again I believe the game boy business was kind of weak around N64 launch too, it seems like Nintendo likes to fail big!

Nintendo had lost their ambition during Wii era. This console was a massive success and they thought Wii U would be fast-selling as well. Within the first year Nintendo realized that this wouldn't be the case and from that point on I have the impression they got their ambition back. 3D World was the first proof – a perfect game with full of love designed and without gameplay bugs. Splatoon, Mario Kart 8 and Mario Maker really showed that they wanted to make good games for this specific console. All games got updates for about a year and got better and better, though they were not rated as high as some N64 titles, which is in case of Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon actually a shame.

Ocarina of Time is by the way the most overrated game in video game history. It uses the Mario 64 engine, has 12,5 fps (PAL) and has an empty overworld compared to A Link to the Past, since they couldn't add more enemies and details because of frame rate issues. Nintendo wanted too much from the hardware which was just not powerful enough for 3D. On the other hand, Yoshi's Story shows how this console should have been used right. SNES games aged good, N64 games aged bad. Wii U games will age good, mainly because of 60 fps.

I stopped reading at that point. That's a terrible statement, when the game is still making top ten lists 21 years after its release. The game was perhaps the most influential piece of software for the entire 3rd person action/adventure genre. It remains the highest rated game Metacritic wise. Its 3DS remake which pretty much plays the same, with a modest coat of paint got rave reviews in 2011.

Your statement is doesn't hold well at all. I will remind you that 1998 was a year that featured incredible games, and had already seen the DC released in Japan, even then Ocarina of Time shattered every expectation. 

I read below that mind bending statement because I was curious as to your rationale for saying it. The N64 brought gaming to 3-D in style, if you wanted SNES games you should have stuck to playing GB color games during the era. By the way Yoshi Story was pretty mundane. The Saturn was a much better machine in terms of 2-D processing capabilities. 

Alright, well let's kind of break down this comment here. You say that CD's were the future of gaming in general as to why N64 isn't that great, but 3D was also the future of gaming in general; which the N64 did way better than it's competitors at the time. Also, again the future of gaming also featured rumble and analog sticks as well for proper 3D movement (both of which have been featured in almost every single home console since the N64, even the consoles before Nintendo retroactively fit their consoles with analog sticks). So, while the N64 didn't do CD's it's a moot point when it helped pioneer almost everything else that generation.

Now, onto the Wii U. It remains to be seen the type of impact the Wii U will have. It used CD's, but not Blu-Ray or DVD's like previous consoles, so it's still behind. It included internal memory, but not anywhere near it's competition (OG Xbox ten years before had an 8GB harddrive in it, and the PS3 at the time was selling a 320GB model when the Wii U was introduced. Wii U max was 32GB for the deluxe). It provided asymmetrical gameplay, which has yet to be used substantially by any other competitor on the market, and was even abandoned by Nintendo themselves. The only thing the Wii U did that I would say actually influenced the future was the off TV play which influenced the Switch. 

N64 obviously

Xenosaga and Xenogears seem to be doing pretty well for itself, as far as staying in peoples minds.

Now will it be talked about in the same light as Mario or Zelda, of course not. We are talking about 35+ years (and Mario I think is creeping on 40 years) of history. Now if there were only a generation where we could play practically all home console LoZ's, and heck why not update the old 3D games graphics, that would be amazing woudn't it? Oh wait.

I'd say the N64 did 3d polygons better sure, WAY better though... Eh. But that is to take out all aspects of story telling, which is what put gaming in the eye of mass audiences and made it what it is today. You really can't argue that. Now if you want to say Nintendo changed how games are played, I'm with you. But you wanna know who changed the way games are made? 

On to the Wii U. It uses its own proprietary disks, so it's not really CD's it used. It doesn't play blu rays, but now we are kind of going outside of gaming. Memory was less, but you can also hook up external storage, so this wasn't really an issue. And yeah, not as strong as it's competitors, but could do (though granted to a lesser extent) everything the other consoles could do. 

As for asymmetrical gaming, the reality is it was just too hard to develop. Nintendo bit off more than they could chew, and i can accept that when they not only had to dive in to HD gaming, but also have games playable across two screens, and it is a shame it never took off because it was awesome.