Better than the original (unlike Star Wars, where the first IS the best).
As the game begins, our bear named after a redneck's stringed instrument and our bird possibly named after a kazoo, it's been two whole years since they defeated Grunty. WOOOOOOOOOOOOO, that's a long time! But guess what! Grunty is revived by her sisters, Mingella and Blobbelda!
If you think this is really bad, you are far from wrong. Okay, so an evil witch is revived and tries to get her revenge on Banjo and Kazooie. But if she wasn't revived, there wouldn't even be Banjo-Tooie! And that means the world would have no happiness left to it at all! And we can't have that now, can we? I like happiness in the world, so we should all thank Mingella and Blobbelda for reviving Grunty!
This game introduces several new characters, including one of my personal favorites, Jolly Roger! In case you didn't know, a Jolly Roger is also a name for a pirate flag. However, this Jolly Roger has nothing to do with pirates, and not even anything to do with a flag! A very misleading name, I know, but then again, this guy is so awesome, we can let it slide this once. Other awesome characters introduced in BT include Pawno, Captain Blackeye, Salty Joe, Chris P. Bacon (another misleading name, as he has nothing to do with the food and does not provide Banjo or Kazooie with any bacon).
The game is so much fun, that I couldn't stop playing for a long time! I couldn't even stop to go to McDonald's! Yeah, it's that fun. I totally recommend it!