Referee (Punch-Out!!)

A Referee has appeared in every Punch-Out!! video game to date. Interestingly, in the early Nintendo Entertainment System games, Mario was the referee. In the Punch-Out!! revival for the Wii, developer Next Level Games introduced a fairly traditional character to replace Mario, who they claimed didn't fit in with their version of the game (nevertheless, Donkey Kong, a character from the Mario'' universe, appears as a fighter).