Well the N64 had some good potential, but there was a real lack of 3rd party interest. Games were a lot more expensive than the competition's, so people weren't as likely to buy as many. Even Nintendo's highly rated 1st party titles became few and far between. It's not like the system had nothing going for it, it just didn't have enough to stay afloat, and fell into the deadly spiral of lack of developer interest leading to lack of consumer interest, leading to lack of developer interest.

The Gamecube had a pretty bad launch, and it looked like it was going to be the N64 all over again, but after a few good 1st and 2nd party titles, it picked up some slack. Granted it never came close to touching the PS2, but at the end of the current generation, all 3 consoles have very real strengths of their own.

Just about any console or handheld will have enough good titles to justify your purchase though. Justifying $600 is difficult, but I'm sure there's a lot of people who feel it's worth it. I mean hey, it's got two Final Fantasy titles announced for it already! Surely that will be appreciated on this board.