I've played this game to completion more times than I can count more than any other game in the series more than any of the X games (not to say any of these sequels are lesser) and I'll say it's a classic there's nothing I can say that other people haven't the controls are very tight the soundtrack has excellent composition it's intuitive and it's simple but breezing through this game is so satisfying. However I am going to outline some criticisms I have (with the caveat that this is literally the first game so they aren't going to get the formula perfect the first time) 1. The disappearing block sections while there are about three of these sections in the game they are just tedious it feels good to finally finish them but in stages like Iceman's level they seriously drag on.
2. The foot holders are very aggravating (also at their worst in Iceman's stage) they are very random in movement and they are incredibly buggy and when there is a long stretch of them it just gets aggravating (which is why I just use the magnet beam but I genuinely wanted to do the platforming it's just so fucking easy to fall through what should be a solid platform)
3. The yellow devil is a bit of a slog he's fun to fight once you learn the patterns but it just takes so long and it's very static I still like this boss but I had much more fun with the others. But in the end this is a classic play it if you haven't already.