At the beginning, Kirby attempts to escape Galeem like canon. However, even he doesn’t make it, but right before being consumed, one of the stars from his Warp Star manages to disappear from the world, and it magically summons Luca, a fire-wielding half-kitsune from another dimension.
Upon landing in the new world, Luca is suddenly attacked by what appears to be Mario wearing different colored clothes and having glowing red eyes. Luca attempts to fight back using his fire, only to find that his fire powers don’t work in this world (think of Donald Duck at the beginning of “Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories” when he tried to attack Axel with magic). A mysterious voice tells him to adapt and figure out a new way to defend himself, and Luca sees a samurai sword sticking out of the ground. Upon pulling it out of the ground, the sword magically gifts him knowledge of swordfighting, and even magically replaces his usual T-shirt, shorts and shoes with that of Takamaru’s outfit.
With the fight back in his favor, Luca manages to damage the Mario lookalike, who keeps turning into metal every few seconds. After sending the Mario clone to his death, a small wispy spirit with the image of the Smoky Progg from “Pikmin” quickly joining his side. After defeating several more of these false fighters and gaining the power from the spirits who were trapped, Luca eventually faces off against the true Mario.
Upon defeat, Mario regains his senses and explains to Luca the situation, such as where they are and who the fighters are up against. Realizing that he was sent to this world to help, Luca vows to rescue every spirit and fighter, and take down Galeem and restore their worlds.