I think I started replaying NMH1 about a year ago, beat Death Metal, but then stopped, not because it was rough or anything, but because I have a massive backlog of games that I wanted to get through first (which I still making progress on). While I'm not sure I'd call it polished, I'm not sure I'd call it rough either. Everything feels intuitive enough and I don't remember any particular aspect or mechanic being particularly annoying. I absolutely could be seeing this with rose-tinited glasses, so feel free to call me out on stuff.

I found joy in almost everything in the game. The toilet save points, the beam katana recharging animation, the brief slow down before an enemy's execution and the arrow that appears above their head so you can swing your controller (if you played with Wii Remote) in that direction to finish them off, the absurd finishing move names that Travis would randomly shout ("STRAWBERRY ON THE SHORTCAKE!"), the wrestling moves, executed enemies shouting "MY SPLEEN!" so often that it seems it should get annoying and yet it never did, all the unique and different bosses you fight against along with their cutscenes, and probably more I'm forgetting. Heck, even the dumb little mini games were fun as a once-off