Nintendo Alarmo review: classic Nintendo creativity

Nintendo Alarmo is one of the weirdest pieces of hardware I’ve had to review so far, and while I have some gripes with it I can’t help but appreciate how classic Nintendo it is.

As a Nintendo fan since being old enough to comprehend human existence, I’ve supported the company in all of its wacky endeavours, even the less-than-successful ones like the Nintendo Wii U…

I’ve also been there to experience the company’s highs though, and I’ll bet any amount that Mario & Luigi Brothership is peak Nintendo

That said, one of the weirdest things Nintendo has done to date, weirder than Nintendo Switch Online, is release an alarm clock…

The Nintendo Alarmo is exactly what is says on the tin, an alarm clock that allows you to wake up in the world of some of Nintendo’s most popular series. It features sounds from five games at the moment, Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, Pikmin 4, Ring-Fit Adventure, and Splatoon 3.

I tried almost all of the sounds, and while some are better suited to a wake-up call than others they all accomplished their mission of getting me out of bed. The sounds themselves varied in tone, and while I preferred the more serene sounds of Hyrule I can see the appeal of waking up to more drastic tunes from Splatoon 3.

Its design is very cool, with a button/dial on top for navigating the on-screen menus, a back button and a message button which occasionally spawned a helpful tip or update. Changing between the different themes would change what was displayed on screen, even down to the font used for the time of day, which was very neat.

Nintendo

The main point of Alarmo though isn’t just to make a loud enough sound to bring you out of the sweetest dreams, it’s to spur you into physically removing yourself from the bed in the morning, as I’m sure we’ve all been cheeky and had an extra five minutes shut-eye every once in a while. Alarmo has a motion sensor that monitors your position in bed, so when it goes off any movement will generate additional noises like Mario collecting coins. Once the clock has confirmed that you’ve gotten out of bed, the alarm will go off, but you can turn it off manually via the button on top. If you don’t turn the alarm off and refuse to get up the clock will play more frantic sounds, like Bowser roaring at you for laziness.

Unfortunately the motion sensor didn’t quite work for my room set-up, as it asks to be placed on a bedside table either in-line or a few inches above the bed frame. My bedside drawers are quite tall, so while it could detect a bit of movement it wasn’t enough to turn off the alarm through me getting up alone, it simply couldn’t do it.

My other gripe is the clock doesn’t even come with a proper charger, just a cable that you need to connect to a plug that supports USB-C. It’s not the worst thing in the world but for the price you’d expect to have everything ready to go out of the box.

As an alarm clock, the Nintendo Alarm works fine, and it’s even got hourly chimes and nighttime sounds to help you unwind, both of which are nice features. I’m interested to see how much support it gets too, as it’s said you’ll be able to download new sounds via an internet connection, and I’d love to get some Kirby or Animal Crossing options on it if it gets that far.

Nintendo

The price is definitely going to hold it back in the long run, as while it was probably expensive to manufacture given the motion control element, it does leave you wondering why it was needed in the first place? It works fine as just a normal alarm clock you set and turn off with the button on the top, it just plays sounds you’d like to hear in the morning rather than obnoxious buzzer noises. Take the movement out of the picture and it’d probably be a little bit more affordable.

What I can confidently say about Nintendo Alarmo is it’s quintessential Nintendo. As I’m sure most fans know Nintendo didn’t start as a game company, it was a playing-card company that went on to dabble in toys. Eventually it saw the emerging market of the video game industry and the rest was history. What I’m getting at is Nintendo is very good at pushing its own envelope when it comes to creativity, and while the Nintendo Alarmo is a very weird, very random product, it’s very much a Nintendo product, and for that reason it carries a lot of charm.

Would I recommend you pick one up for yourself? Maybe not if you’re on a budget, but if you’re in need of a decent alarm clock and adore Nintendo as much as I do, you’ll get a kick out of this.