I just beat the first one on PSN not too long ago.
I liked certain parts of it (the vehicle sections, character design, block puzzles), but I wasn't a big fan of how close you had to get to things to punch them, or trying to do any precision platforming. Running off the other side of a small platform, right into a one-hit-death was a pretty common occurence.
Some of the power ups were a nice way to counter the difficult platforming a bit.
