Riku

Riku (リク) is one of the main characters of the KINGDOM HEARTS series. He appears in his Dark Mode form in McLeodGaming's Flash cartoon series, A Super Mario World.

Character description
Riku is a young boy who lives on Destiny Islands with his best friends, Sora and Kairi, and all three of them dream of venturing from Destiny Islands to find out what lies beyond. He is five years old during KINGDOM HEARTS: Birth by Sleep, fifteen during the events of  and KINGDOM HEARTS: Chain of Memories, sixteen during the events of KINGDOM HEARTS: 358/2 Days and KINGDOM HEARTS II, and seventeen during the events of KINGDOM HEARTS 3D: Dream Drop Distance.

In A Super Mario World
Riku appears as the true antagonist in A Super Mario World. He appears only in his Dark Mode form, Dark Riku, but he is referred to simply as Riku. In the second episode, after Mario and Link escape the castle with Princess Zelda, Cloud Strife prepares to fight the greater foe that Bowser had warned them about before being killed. Riku is then suddenly revealed to be the mastermind behind everything. Cloud is at first disappointed (as he thought the foe was Sephiroth), but they still engage in a fight to the death that continues in the final episode. He ultimately defeated when he and Cloud deliver their final blows at the same time, but only Riku is affected by it, and he crumbles into bloody pieces.

As an Assist Trophy
Riku appears as an Assist Trophy in Super Smash Flash 2, where his design is based on his appearance in KINGDOM HEARTS II. When summoned, he jumps into the air and spins forward, traveling straight forward and back while delivering a circling slash with the Soul Eater.

As a playable character
Riku was previously planned to appear as a playable character in Super Smash Flash 2 as part of the initial roster for the game. However, following the release of v0.7 of the SSF2 Demo, the developers revamped the whole roster in order to accommodate some new, unexpected characters. Word about Riku remained a mystery until May 4, 2019, when Riku was officially revealed as an Assist Trophy, confirming that he would not appear as a playable character.

Trivia

 * 's twelfth costume in SSF2 is directly based on Riku's appearance in KINGDOM HEARTS II, with his Kingdom Key being based on Riku's Keyblade of heart.