izigame.me

TL;DR: Reject modernity, return to MKX
The biggest criticism that many people seem to have about this game is the exuberant amount of money that needs to be shilled out in order to have access to all the characters, and I have nothing new to add to the conversation in that regard, other than simply state that this is the first Mortal Kombat game I've owned without owning all of characters.
In terms of the actual game: the gameplay is very fresh for Mortal Kombat, the kameos add a brand new level of depth to every match played, and the air-combos are a very unique addition and an interesting way to develop on the pre-determined combo-based fighting that Mortal Kombat is known for. However all these innovations result in MK1 straying from the established Mortal Kombat formula, making it arguably a worse Mortal Kombat game than its predecessor MK11.
The graphics, much like all Mortal Kombat games, are very good in terms of visual quality. However they're starting to piss me off with the way they completely change how the people look with every single game. Liu Kang, the head honcho himself, looks nothing like he did in MK11. And this has been an issue for a while, but I think MK1 does is particularly egregiously. This is almost certainly on purpose, since the game is a "reboot of the universe", but that remains a stupid excuse to completely change how almost every character looks, to the point of unrecognisability for many of them if it wasn't for the power-rangers-esque color coding.
The character roster might be the strongest aspect that MK1 has over its predecessors. Every member seems hand-picked to maximise fan-appreciation. All the classics are obviously present (Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage, you know the ones...), however some characters which were staples of the franchise have been removed or demoted to Kameo status (such as Jax, Sonya, Kano...) in order to make room for fan-favorites which were denied the spotlight for a long time (such as Havik, Ashrah, Reiko...).
As per usual, the DLC roster is also very strong, mostly composed of very fun and interesting characters, with a few inevitable misses thrown in there probably just because some people in the development team really wanted them in particular (2 Terminators back-to-back? Really??)
Overall Mortal Kombat 1 is a very interesting entry for the Mortal Kombat franchise, bringing many new ideas to the table and standing out as an instalment to really impact the franchise as a whole. However this is also why it is much harder to recommend Mortal Kombat 1 over Mortal Kombat 11.
The biggest factor in MK1 being a better choice than MK11 is the much more active multiplayer that comes with the advent of being the latest instalment of a series. However, for a strictly singleplayer/local gamer, MK11 might be the better choice, given that its Singleplayer mode (Towers of Time) is strictly better than the abomination that is MK1's Invasions.
At the end of the day, they are both equally good options for a Mortal Kombat game (which says a lot about how good MK11 really was that it still holds up to this day), and you should probably decide which one you want based on which roster interests you more.