I never played first MDK when I was young, but I sure have played MDK2 which was an excellent game!
This game is excellent and fun!! Although graphics are quite outdated it is impressive to see such a fast-passed action in those days. Snipping is excellent (although it would help if you could walk and move your scope left and right at the same time), and the atmosphere is crazy and something that you will not see everywhere. Yup, craziness is Shinny's trademark.
Only real problem is that the game is too short... First 3 levels are quite easy and you will probably finish them in one seating. Fourth and five are quite challenging, which forces you to use your items more sparingly, to plan your movement and to stick with sniper as much as you can. Too bad, that as soon as you get a grip of control and style, you reach level 6 which is the arena fight after which the game ends.
Someone definitely needs to remake this game with modern graphics, adopt controls from MDK2 (which perfected Kurt's movement), add more levels and more narrative between them. I would definitely pay for such game.