User blog comment:TheFoolisherFoolishFool/What happened to Lucas?/@comment-6604133-20140920042846/@comment-6604133-20140920043840

Clones are much easier to make. They probably realised that making New Pork City was impossible on 3DS, and that people preferred Mario's Melee moveset, so they put in that moveset in the form of Dr. Mario, which meant another character needed to be cut. Why the picked Lucas is beyond me, because that guy had a cult following.