Blade

Blade is a  fan character owned by Kingdom Castle Animations, created specifically to appear as a playable character in Super Smash Flash.

Character description
Blade originates from the Sonic fan characters created by Newgrounds user, Equinox-Twilight, particularly deriving from the other fan character Flare the Hedgehog (said to be the "brother" of Sonic the Hedgehog) who mainly appeared in the KA Omake Flash animated series. Perhaps by getting authorization from Equinox-Twilight, Gregory McLeod picked the template sprites for Flare the Hedgehog and had user Topcat to redesign the character so it can be uniquely "different" from Flare; though not confirmed, it is assumed Topcat was also the one who picked the name "Blade". Super Smash Flash began development not as a  fan game but as a platformer action-oriented game with Blade as the main character, and he was also originally added for testing purposes.

From the early Super Smash Flash demos up to the eventual final release, Blade's design was established: he is a short red hedgehog who wears blue gloves, pants and shoes and who wields a characteristic sword. Much like characters in the Sonic canon, he is able to use the Spin Dash and the Spin Jump. In works since then, such as his proposed Super Smash Flash 2 design and Kingdom Castle Animations' Blade Vs. Blue fanservice, he has been shown to create and manipulate lightning.

In Super Smash Flash
Blade is a playable character in the original Super Smash Flash. Blade most likely stayed in the roster as a result of being the first character coded into the early Super Smash Flash, before the game was eventually made into a Super Smash Bros. fan game. In the game, he is accompanied by his fellow clone character,.

In Super Smash Flash 2
Blade was previously confirmed to once again appear in this sequel, with a completely new design but with some similarities to his Super Smash Flash counterpart. He would look similar to Knuckles in this game and his katana would emit electricity. As of May 18, 2012, he has been officially cut from roster, along with Blue and other fan characters.

Trivia

 * For April Fools' Day 2019, McLeodGaming announced a supposed remake for the original Super Smash Flash titled Super Smash Flash 1 HD, which would have featured updated higher-quality sprites resembling those from Super Smash Flash 2. Blade was among those presented with an updated sprite (resembling his planned redesign intended for SSF2). Said mockup sprite was created specifically for the joke by former developer FriendAlias.