A good strategy game for its first time on GBA.
To start off it has its flaws but fair play to Banpresto for its first try. The animation at that time was fair. Even though I didn't understand Japanese, it didn't stop me from playing. It was easier to figure out the gameplay mechanics through trial and error. Even to this day I still don't understand the language but the games in the series are what it is. Fun.
The menus are easily understandable, the gameplay started out as easy but the difficulty curve can get to you. You can level up your pilots in a few ways. They can attack or destroy enemy units to gain experience. Also some units can heal or replenish to gain experience. The difficulty is just right with a good decent amount of enemies and good bosses where you have to upgrade your units and not just level up.
The best part is earning money in the process. Even if you game over accidently or on purpose, you can still accumulate the money you've earned as well as pilot experience in most cases. But kill counts are not included. The secrets are also good to find out for good pilots and unit. It gives the player a lot more to think about strategically.
Pilots also have skills they learn when leveling up. These abilities are unique to each character and provide many various supports in battle be it earning double money or increased accuracy and evasion.
Some special enemy pilots have better accuracy, firepower and evasion rates so it's not always the case of easy victory. Losing units can cost you money for repairs after the battle.
The only problem is the inability to skip battle animations and dialogues. When you are in a rush you can't skip it. When you don't want to see the same things again you can't skip it.
Although SRW has been my favourite strategy games of all times, the animations can get a bit too repetitive. The music is fab for a GBA and the battle animations of its time was good.