What a difference a couple months can make.

In January, Pokemon Go’s content was dull to say the least. However, beginning with the Road to Kalos event, which led to the global Kalos Tour event Feb. 28 and March 1, my luck with this game has been over the top in more ways than one.

It started Thursday, Feb. 26 with the Sinnoh raid hour, featuring origin forme Dialga and Palkia. The objective was to get a shiny Dialga or Palkia with a special background and its adventure effect move, which wasn’t guaranteed and made it difficult to find one that checked off all three categories.

The remote raid pass limit was increased from 10 to 30 for the Road to Kalos event, which gave me just enough chances to secure a shiny Palkia with the special background and spacial rend, a move that enables trainers to manipulate space and find additional Pokemon from farther away.

While I did not get shiny Dialga, a friend gave me a nonshiny background that turned into a hundo — a Pokemon with perfect IVs — from a lucky trade. What’s special about it is it knows roar of time, another adventure effect move that enables trainers to distort time for six minutes.

Special items like incense, lucky eggs and star pieces operate with a timer, so the move essentially allows people to extend the duration of these items and reap the benefits of encountering more Pokemon, getting more experience points and stardust from catching Pokemon.

The next day, Friday, Feb. 27, was Pokemon Day, which marked the franchise’s 30-year anniversary of the original Red and Green games’ release in Japan.

To celebrate, Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen — the Game Boy Advance games that I grew up with as a kid in the early 2000s — were re-released for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.

I bought a digital copy of LeafGreen and have enjoyed playing the game once more with the same starter Pokemon I chose as a kid, Squirtle.

Also on Pokemon Day, the generation 10 games, Pokemon Winds and Waves, were announced for a 2027 release during this year’s Pokemon Presents, an annual video presentation the Pokemon Co. does to announce major news, updates and projects across the franchise.

In the promotional video, Browt, a grass-type bird; Pombon, a fire-type dog; and Gecqua, a water-type gecko were announced as the generation 10 starters.

Based on looks alone, with its orange fur, beady eyes and cute smile, Pombon is my favorite of the three.

Though it may take a couple of years, the generation 10 Pokemon will eventually come to Pokemon Go, which is exciting because it means there will be more hundos for me to chase.

During the global Kalos Tour event, I caught a shundo Dragonite with the mega symbol special background from my first raid.

On Saturday, Feb. 28, I played the first day of the event at the Penn State Altoona campus. While driving in Altoona to my part-time job that night, a screw punctured my front passenger tire, forcing me to play the final day of the event from home.

However, my luck did not run out because I managed to secure another shundo, a Lucario that also has a special background.

I’ve played the Go Tour event every year since the Kanto Tour in 2021, and I’ve never caught a shundo from the event until this year. Let alone two shundos that both have special backgrounds, making them even rarer.

It was such a fun week for Pokemon, and it makes me excited for Go Fest this summer when the legendary Pokemon Mewtwo returns to regular five-star raids for the first time in four years.

An in-person event takes place in June in Chicago, with the global event taking place a month later in July — marking the game’s 10-year anniversary.

Although an official announcement hasn’t been made yet, Go Fest merchandise clearly shows Mewtwo standing in front of a black mega symbol, basically confirming that Mega Mewtwo X and/or Mega Mewtwo Y will debut in Pokemon Go this year. Mega Mewtwo is considered one of the strongest mega Pokemon in the entire franchise, so having the opportunity to capture a regular hundo Mewtwo is exciting and something I look forward to doing it soon.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520 and mchurella@altoonamirror.com