I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. 
I'm not a fan of Nintendo's modern design philosophy to be honest. It just feels like there's padding everywhere and a lot of the content is copy paste. I get they are still on the coattails of the open world phenomenon, but I'm pretty sick of it.
My biggest gripe, is that Nintendo obviously recognizes that classic challenges need to be in the game, but since the open world areas are for copy paste repetitive content, they make these side-excursions which contain more of the classic tried and true gameplay content. I miss when that WAS the main content. Just put that more into the main level design like Mario 64 had where you know which ever area of the map you go to there is some clear challenge to overcome or worthwhile reward. I feel like the shops and all the fluff in DKB was just padding mainly and didn't enhance my playthrough.
But yeah...
The music was great. The aesthetic was decent but hit or miss and certain things did feel awkward especially compared to classic DK aesthetics, but whatever. And the controls were good for what they were though smashing everything did lose it's luster after awhile for me.
I hope the next Mario and Zelda games have something new to bring to the table in terms of design or it might be bye bye Nintendo for me.