N64, its game library of 1st party games blows the other two out of the water, plus Rare were at there peak. No contest.

Ah the 3rd console curse...

If we’re going for it’s time, probably the N64 for me even though they canned Earthbound 64 (used to scour game magazines for any info till it was eventually announced to be cancelled), the game I was most excited for. Best party console too. Zelda, Mario, Smash , Conker, etc. Good Times

We don't all play games for the same reason. For the most part, I do not play games to see a story unfold. I play games because the act of playing is enjoyable. That is paramount, and as long as the gameplay is gold, story isn't even necessary at all.

What I'll say about stories in videogames is that I prefer it when the stories that are told actually take advantage of the medium. Something like Mass Effect or some of the Fire Emblem games where your choices determine a lot of how the story plays out or Bioshock 1 where the message wouldn't work in a book or movie because they don't have the consumer acting in the story the way videogames do. Part of the issue for me with something like Uncharted, beyond the ludonarrative dissonance of all the killing and just not liking the shooting mechanics in general, is that its attempts at being more like a movie just highlight how much worse the story is compared to similar movies like Indiana Jones. I'd have a better time and waste less time just rewatching Raiders of the Lost Ark. Whereas I don't find myself thinking I'd rather be watching Star Wars when playing Mass Effect because no movie can give the kind of story experience the games do.

Lol no.

They were beasting in the SNES era. DKC 1-3, Killer Instinct, Battletoads. I don't think most games in the 5th gen or even 6th gen hold up that well today. Goldeneye and other 3D platformers were a revelation back in the 90's but feel antiquated and just plain bad to control compared to modern games. Where most of the games on SNES aged perfectly.

TLDR people need to put their nostalgia goggles back in the attic :P

you see... you can argue that Virtual Boy is Nintendo third generation "Hand Held"... just saying...

1º gen > Game & Watch
2° gen > Gameboy
3ºgen > VirtualBoy

Heh, I guess that is the secret.  I guess we count Nintendo's first gen hardware as the entire Game and Watch line.  That means that a company's third console always fails.  It's kind of like a rite of passage.

N64 BAYYYBEEEEEEE, what it lacks in quantity of titles it makes up for the timeless classics it got, besides the revolutionary Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time, it has a fantastic sequel in Majora's Mask, Paper Mario as one of Nintendo's best RPGs, the best F-Zero game, Kirby 64, the endlessly fun Star Fox 64, and the GOAT Sin & Punishment and Mischief Makers.

PS3 was ok, I enjoyed a good amount of games there, but there wasn't much of anything that struck deep with me besides discovering the Atelier series, and with series I'm a fan of it felt like a downgrade, like going from DMC 1 and 3 to 4 and DmC, or the decline of quality in the Tales series post Vesperia. From MGS 2 and 3 to 4 and 5, etc.

Sega had the SG1000 the MarkIII/Master System and then the Genesis/Megadrive. Their third was their most successful console ever. 

Well we are all entitled to our own opinions here, but here is mine. 

DKC trilogy is a beloved timeless masterpiece and so was Killer Instinct for the SNES, but here is the thing. N64 had its own version of KI, to me, a much more superior version to the SNES version in KI GOLD. You talk about games that didn't age well on the N64 but than phrase KI on the SNES, a game that doesn't hold up well interms of gameplay especially compared to GOLD. Battletoads in Battlemanics is a solid game but a less popular version to the OG NES version. It only offered 6 levels and was far less memorable. 

Rare were amazing for the SNES, but for the N64 they offered not only the quality of the SNES games, but did it on a lot more occasions. Here is a list.

Golden Eye

Banjo Kazooie

Banjo Tooie

Conkers BFD

Killer Instinct Gold

Blast Corps

Jet Force Gemini

Perfect Dark

Diddy Kong Racing

Donkey Kong 64

You say take those nostalgia goggles off.. interesting. You are normally entitled to say that if you are referring to newer games than me however arent you the one talking about older games here?

BTW, i own all those games you mention.