I dont understand why people claim that Zelda is Nintendo's greatest franchise, many people always claim that the Zelda franchise is superior to the Mario franchise. This does really annoy me because its not true, fair enough Zelda is a great franchise but it's not in the same league as Mario.

Just look at the history of Mario

No offense to Zelda and link but no franchise can touch Mario, so I had to address this. Because Zelda is not a better/greater franchise than Mario!

Megaman.2. out

Is it because Mario has been milked alot?

Both are great franchises and I think that it depends on you taste which one is better because they are very different.

It's like comparing Michael Jackson and the Beatles.

You completely fail to mention The Legend of Zelda (NES), Link to the Past or Ocarina of Time.

Never mind all the other main series incarnations.

Zelda is not the greatest in average score or sales, but is the greatest in some other form I forget, cos I've been drinking. I'll do some thinking and get back to you.

Mario has been milked too much.

Zelda is Nintys best franchise.

It depends on if you prefer platformers and everyone knows that genre obtained perfection with SMB3.

Actually,in the end, it boils down to personal opinion.
As for impact, financial and cultural, Mario is way ahead of Zelda. But the Zelda series has something of an "X" Factor, which makes it the favorite for many fans.
Also note that all the games you have mentioned(except MK64) can be replaced by a Zelda game thats just as good( even better in case of the SNES and 64 era)

Thank you King of Pop.