From a financial perspective, the N64 wasn’t a failure. Nintendo still made a ton of profit off of it. The hardware itself was profitable and they had several of the biggest games of the generation, all of them first party. It didn’t bleed them out for billions like the PS3 or the Xbox One did. I think the only platforms that were net financial losses for Nintendo were the Virtual Boy, which was definitely a huge black eye for Nintendo, and the Wii U. 

It was a failure in terms of Nintendo losing its leadership in the industry.  Even so, I’d argue that both the PS3 and X1 were worse in that regard, and Nintendo didn’t have the same overwhelming lead from the SNES that the Sony did coming in from the PS2 to the PS3.

The PS3 was definitely a worse failure, financially, than the N64.  The N64 was still a failure in that Nintendo was undefeated until that point.  Ever since then Sony has been considered the king of home console gaming.  It passed the crown over, and the Wii was seen as a fluke, so Sony is still considered the king of home console gaming.  (Maybe Nintendo is reclaiming the crown right now with the Switch.)  In that sense the N64 was a pretty big failure, but I agree the PS3 was still even worse.  (And Atari and Sega were even worse than that.)  I put N64 first so I could escalate from there.

I know you said "maybe", but I still wouldn't agree with that. Only because Sony still has the most sales out of the 3, and it's a strong competitive commercial and financial success. Again, I know what you meant by maybe because the Switch could very well outsell the PS4 in the long run.

N64 for me. If I liked the PS3's exclusives more I'd that would probably get my vote, but I found the Uncharted games, Last of Us, and God of War 3 to all be very overrated and third party games tended to be better on the 360 and especially the PC. I'd rather replay any of a dozen N64 exclusives over pretty much any PS3 exclusive.

As for the XB1, I don't think that could even be in the running.

Only fanboys in angry over their brand losing the 7th gen claim Wii was a fluke. Sony was most certainly NOT the king of console gaming that gen. They barely managed to avoid third place in the end.

Ultimately ended up voting for N64.

As much as I like the PS3, couldn't find it in myself to vote against the likes of Banjo Kazooie, Ocarina of Time, F-Zero X or Starfox 64.

PS3 for sure.

For me it’s a toss up between N64 and PS3. N64 had a several revolutionary type games with Golden Eye, Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, Smash Bros OG, and Ocarina of Time to name ones that come to mind (not to mention playing pokemon in big screen via stadium). Many of these games truly set new bars and it also had a better catalogue than people give it credit for. However, I slightly lean to PS3 because there is a huge library and a lot more exclusives when you look into it many of which are just as great, but only lack the nostalgic revolution aspect. Both good consoles for their era and my vote could flip easily. Xbox One on the other hand *shakes fist*

The Genesis/Megadrive is the best third console.

Because video games aren't literature. A story isn't always necessary, not every game needs one, just like not every movie needs special effects.