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Nintendo fans need to relax. Even if Wii U is a sales disappointment (and yes, sorry that does look fairly likely right now) it's not the end of Nintendo.
Wii U is just a lot of well intentioned, but poorly received and timed decisions on Nintendo's part, mixed in with some laziness and being out of touch.
At least on the plus side their games look great in HD. Mario 3D World really pops on a good HDTV set, thank goodness the Wii days are over.
The N64 first year isn't comparable to the Wii U. Sony was still fairly unestablished at that time, many people figured the N64 was going to be the SNES-2 and get all the games (average joes didn't understand the economics behind CD vs cartridge and third party vs first party etc.). I had several friends that bought an N64 early on, but then had to buy a Playstation later on to get all the games they wanted.
The N64 also for its time was the most hyped game system ever, "Silicon Graphics! Like Jurassic Park and Terminator 2!" etc. etc. etc. Nintendo of that era was a lot more like what Sony/MS are today. And also GoldenEye saved the N64, that game had *tremendous* word of mouth and ironically started the FPS shooter craze on consoles.
