.BARS File Extension

A BARS file contains audio used by a Nintendo Wii U or Switch video game. It may be saved as a .SARC archive, or it may be saved as a chunked file. Games created before The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild use BARS files saved as archives; BOTW and later games use chunked BARS files.

BARS files store audio saved in the .BFSTM, .BFWAV, or .BWAV formats. These audio files are used to play in-game music, sound effects, and dialogue. While BARS files are not meant to be opened by players, players have created utilities that allow them to extract the audio BARS files contain.

Examples of games that use BARS files include:

• Splatoon
• Super Mario Maker
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons

You can use BARS to BWAV (multiplatform) to extract BWAV files from Nintendo Switch BARS files. For example, you can use BARS to BWAV to extract BWAV files from Animal Crossing: New Horizons' BARS files. You can also use VGMToolbox (Windows) to extract audio from newer BARS files and SARCTools (Windows) to extract audio from older BARS files.

You may also be able to play the audio a BARS file contains using Nullsoft Winamp, with the vgmstream plug-in installed.