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I don't think it's a matter of the number of cylinders. The pistons, after all, only go up and down. You need the flywheel to store rotational energy, not up and down energy. It also serves as a very convenient place to get the power out of the engine, and even to mount the starter in most cases.
Note that the early aircraft rotary engines (think the Sopwith Camel and similar) did not have any flywheel. Instead, they bolted the end of the crankshaft directly to the airframe, and bolted the propeller directly to the engine. The whole engine spun around, while the crankshaft was held still. It effectively used most of the mass of the engine as a flywheel.
-soD
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