The minigame has a field of red and blue barrels in a 6x6 grid (in the remake, they also have patterns on their top areas). It plays a cover of the overworld theme from Super Mario World, changed to a remix of the mini-game theme from Mario & Luigi: Dream Team in the remake. The objective is to slide the barrels so that an entire row or column is only one color, with the time limit of three minutes. The player uses to move Mario, and to move Luigi. To slide the barrels, while holding , the player pushes to move Mario's columns, and to move Luigi's rows. When an entire line is cleared, the brothers earn one point, and can earn more points for each additional line cleared, with four points for two lines, and eight points for three lines, and even sixteen for four lines. As lines are cleared, Bink will throw in more barrels into the field for Mario and Luigi to work with. As the Bros. clear more lines, yellow barrels will be on the field along with the blue and red ones, and even green barrels should they clear even more lines. If the Mario Bros. score three lines at the same time, a small skeletal Chain Chomp will peek out from behind the crates on the bottom-right corner of the screen. Likewise, if they score four lines at the same time, a small skeletal man resembling a Stalfos from The Legend of Zelda will peek out from behind the crates on the bottom-right corner of the screen.
When the player completes the Barrel minigame with ten points or more, Bink gives the Mario Bros. a Membership Card, and the Bros. go back to the guard, who lets them pass. The player can play this game as much as they like before the S.S. Chuckola sets sail and becomes permanently inaccessible. It becomes available again in the Little Fungitown arcade, however, and can be played to earn Hee Beans.
The Mario Bros. receive one point for every line matched, four points for a combo of two lines matched at once, eight points for a combo of three lines matched at once and sixteen points for a combo of four lines matched at once. The following number of points yield the following rewards:
It has been requested that more images be uploaded for this article. Remove this notice only after the additional images have been added. Specifics: Image of skeletal Chain Chomp for clearing 3 barrel "columns", and image of Stalfos Knight for clearing 4.
^Thomason, Steve (2003). Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga Player's Guide. Nintendo of America (American English). ISBN 1-930206-43-7. Page 23.
^Stratton, Stephen and Levi Buchanan (November 25, 2003). Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga Prima's Official Strategy Guide. Prima Games (American English). ISBN 0-7615-4423-2. Page 130.