Each match in Star Wars: Battle for the Republic takes place on a grid of squares where the player gets to command their troops by moving them individually, one square at a time across the grid. Enemy troops are attacked by simply moving your square of troops onto the enemy's square, which then commences a battle. During each battle, the square is zoomed in on and an animation is shown. Once the battle ends, the loser's side has their troops removed from the grid. Even though each square of troops can only move one square each round, the player can use a Transport which will allow them to move their troops to any unoccupied square by going into hyperspace.
Besides the default troops there are two other special units in the game, Battleships and Shields. Battleships will increase the movement range of troops, and will grant additional strength in combat. Shields add extra defensive strength to troops, but this makes them immobile. Different heroes will also grant various combat modifiers.
The game features two different campaigns, a Separatist campaign and a Republic campaign. The Separatist campaign is played first and consists of eight missions, upon completing it you unlock the Republic campaign, which also contains eight missions.
Star Wars: Battle for the Republic was not picked up by reviewers at the time of its release, but an April 17, 2007 review by Andrew Williams of Pocket Gamer gave the game a score of 7 out of 10, saying "Star Wars: Battle for the Republic is a game that might disappoint at first glance. The graphical quality isn't amazing, the sound simply isn't there, and the gameplay is perhaps not what might be expected from a strategy game, playing much more like a puzzle or board game. But given a little time it develops into a genuinely good, fast-paced game that is very well suited to the mobile format."