An all-around excellent game.
Rogue Leader is a straightforward flight combat game in which you fly as Rebel Alliance heroes Luke Skywalker and Wedge Antilles through a number of very engaging missions, where you'll pilot virtually every staple of the Star Wars universe, including the Millennium Falcon, snowspeeders, and the various [insert letter here]-wing fighters. All of the original Star Wars trilogy's biggest battle sequences, such as the battles of Yavin, Hoth, and Endor, make appearances, as well as a number of completely original missions, which mix in seamlessly with the existing battles and don't feel out of place at all.
The campaign is rather short with only ten main missions, although there are creative unlockable missions (unlocked by earning medals in the game) which add more gameplay time. These include manning the Millennium Falcon's guns and blowing up TIE Fighters as Luke & Co. escape the first Death Star, maneuvering the asteroid field and hiding on the back of a Star Destroyer like the scene in The Empire Strikes Back, and even a mission in which you fly in the Battle of Yavin from Darth Vader's perspective. The game has no multiplayer, which is kind of a bummer, but the single-player game is so good that any multiplayer woes are immediately forgotten.
The gameplay is extremely solid, with great controls, a handy targeting computer for finding those pesky black TIE Fighters against a black space background, creative level design, and the right amount of faithfulness to the original movies while still being a great game. Even though you're essentially doing the same thing throughout the game (flying a starfighter through various battles), it never feels old. A few of the missions, like a mission in which Wedge has to rescue some Rebel POWs from an Imperial base, and destroying (and escaping) the second Death Star, are extremely hard, but are very rewarding in the end. After all, blowing up the biggest battle station in the galaxy SHOULD be a little more than a walk in the park.
The graphics in the game are beautiful, especially considering this game came out on Day 1 of the GameCube's lifespan. It still holds up great against today's graphical standards. The ships are extremely well modeled, and even when you switch to a first-person view, the interiors of the cockpits are very detailed. The music in the game is great, mixing classic Star Wars music with new material that, much like the rest of the original content in this game, molds seamlessly with the stuff from the movies. The voice acting is pretty good (including the voice of the dude who actually played Wedge in the movies), although why they didn't just take the lines straight from the movie recordings instead of re-recording them with new voices is beyond me.
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader is just a short fusion of excellent gameplay, great level design, and wonderful execution. If you're a Star Wars fan, this game is a must-buy, and even if you're not, Rogue Leader is just a solid experience that shouldn't be missed.