Honestly, you might be able to get away with it, but from my experience it would be best to play from the first game and go on to the second one.
The games reintroduce the characters anyway but you may not understand references to other games if you play out of order. 3 is ok on it's own though but 1 starts it all off.
Hm... I wonder what the inspirtation for this thread could have been?! Thanks Sunrise! Does anyone know if number 1 wll be getting an iPad version anytime soon?
It's not an issue, but for the full experience, play them in order. The first one introduces the story and explains why you're fighting LeChuck. Then again, I started with the 3rd and 4th and had absolutely no problem understanding what's going on.
continuity isn't really a problem. there will be some inside jokes or references to other games that you will miss, but otherwise the entire experience should be cohesive. I started with MI3