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Enlarge / The origami theme adds quite a bit of physical depth to Paper Mario's beautiful vast environments. (credit: Nintendo)

Of all the spin-offs Mario has starred in over the years, the Paper Mario games (and the related Mario & Luigi series) most ably expanded the character past his basic platforming roots. The familiar characters, locations, and items are still there in Paper Mario titles, but they're supplemented by completely new settings and situations that often wouldn't feel out of place in a traditional Japanese RPG. And even the familiar Mario characters get new life in these games, revealing rich interior lives and characterizations that the simple save-the-princess-again plots can't hope to match.

Paper Mario: The Origami King continues this tradition, telling a cheesy-but-engaging, family-friendly story with verve and charm. But it messes with the series' usual RPG trappings so much that it's still finding its footing even as the final credits roll. As a complete package, Origami King often feels like a mishmash of original ideas—some good, some mediocre—which never quite come together as more than the sum of their parts.

Into the fold

As often happens in Mario's RPG titles, King Bowser has been pushed (and folded) aside in favor of a more interesting antagonist for Origami King. This time around, that antagonist is Olly, a floating, folded being imbued with the usual ill-defined, plot-moving magical powers. Olly gives off some not-so-subtle racial supremacist vibes in loudly announcing his desire to transform the flat paper denizens of Paper Mario's kingdom into thicker, folded origami versions of themselves. And if those folded versions become zombie-like automata beholden to Olly's will, it's all the better for his new world order.

Enlarge / President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden watch as the NASA Lunar Electric Rover stops in front of the presidential reviewing stand on Pennsylvania Avenue on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (credit: NASA)

Last year Vice President Mike Pence directed NASA to return humans to the Moon by 2024. NASA has since been working hard toward this goal, creating the Artemis Program and issuing contracts for three different teams to begin developing lunar landers.

But in his speech, Pence went beyond just setting a date for the landing. He also said the space agency should "establish a permanent base there, and develop the technologies to take American astronauts to Mars and beyond. That’s the next giant leap."

Now, we're starting to get some details on what that may look like. On Friday a NASA engineer named Mark Kirasich, who is acting director of NASA's Advanced Exploration Systems, spoke at a meeting of the Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (see video). During his presentation, Kirasich laid out NASA's plans for lunar surface activities.