Nintendo did possibly the most Nintendo thing ever earlier this month and revealed the motion-sensing tech it had filed a patent for wasn’t anything to do with the Switch 2, and was, instead,an alarm clock. Not an accessory for your Switch, just a standalone, Nintendo-themed clock that people have seemingly been very willing to pay $100 for. For the past week, I’ve been incorporating the Alarmo into my life as much as I possibly can in the name of journalism.
I’ve been doing that not only because I was one of the suckers very prepared to drop $100 on a clock, but because Nintendo spared me that financial blow by kindly providing me with a review sample. My review resume includesXbox doughnuts,a God Of War cookbook, anda playable keychain, so when it comes to evaluating weird video-adjacent stuff, you’re in good hands.
While I’ll cover all the standard stuff you need to know about the Alarmo in order to make an educated decision on whether Nintendo’s latest gimmick is worth 100 of your hard-earned bucks, I’m also here to tell you the stuff that Nintendo won’t. How the Alarmo handles a five-year-old jumping on you at six in the morning, what it does to a marriage when you inform your other half you’re sleeping in the spare room to see if it changes how loudly Jump Up Superstar plays in the morning. You know, the sort of stuff you aren’t going to find in Nintendo’s FAQ.
Night One With Nintendo’s Alarmo
Setting Up Your Nintendo Clock
I was unashamedly very excited when my Alarmo arrived. The clock runs you through a series of questions and instructions so that it can get acclimated to its surroundings and prep you for your first night together. One of those instructions requires you to place the Alarmo where it will be while you sleep, although after a few days with the clock, that doesn’t seem to matter all that much. More on that in a second.
The Alarmo will default to watching for potential sleepers from 3pm. If only, Nintendo.
I went withBreath Of The Wildfor night one of my Alarmo run. While it watches you sleep on BOTW mode, a moving image of Link sitting by a campfire stays on the screen. Whenever I woke up in the night and looked over to check the time, it was oddly comforting to see Link still sitting there, staring into the flames.
I’m usually awoken by an overly excited five-year-old at around 6am each day, but he was even more excited than usual on this particular morning as he assumed the Alarmo was for him when it arrived and wanted to be in the room when it did its thing for the first time. A few minutes after he bowled in at the crack of dawn, the alarm went off. I explained how it worked so we both started to move around, the sound of Link’s glider getting louder the more we moved.
Using The Alarmo When There’s More Than One Of You In A Bed
Turns Out It’s Not Only For Single People After All
This is where I have some good news for those of you who share a bed. Eventually, I got up to see if the Alarmo would register me getting out of bed while my son stayed put, and it worked. Also worth noting that my wife had gotten out of bed and left the room before the alarm started, so seemingly the Alarmo was focused on me, the closest person to it, even thoughNintendo has warned that it might not work as well in beds with more than one person.
The Alarmo keeps watching where you sleep for an hour after you’ve gotten out of bed, so if you planned on trying to trick it by getting up and then lying back down right away, think again.
That brings us neatly onto night two with the Alarmo - my night alone. For the purposes of this review, I needed to double-check whether the Alarmo really does work better when it only has one living thing in its line of vision. Simply put, for me at least, it didn’t really make a difference. Yes, the clock does keep records on how long you’ve slept and how long it takes you to get out of bed, but they’re very basic. If you want those stats to be accurate then yes, you will need to prioritize them over your love life and sleep alone.
Night three was when I brought my son into the mix a little more and what exactly the Alarmo is good for, in my house at least, started to become clear. This was the first time I used the clock’s Sleepy Sounds function and, while they were more a distraction than a sleeping aid for a five-year-old - he wanted to hear every sleepy sound available as soon as possible - I can see how soothing Nintendo music from the likes of Pikmin and Ring Fit Adventure will help those of you who struggle to nod off.
A quick rant on this being the only way Nintendo has acknowledged Ring Fit Adventure since it launched. I know Nintendo’s approach is to kick games out the door and leave them to it but come on, an exercise game you need expensive accessories for that has sold 15 million copies not getting even a little bit of DLC? Okay, I’m done.
Discovering How The Alarmo Can Work For You
It Doesn’t Have To Just Be An Alarm Clock
From day four onwards, my Alarmo has been in the living room rather than my bedroom, which brings me to that extra info on setting the clock’s parameters - they don’t really seem to matter. The Alarmo has functioned perfectly well wherever I’ve used it without changing its settings, although you can recalibrate it to a new sleep setting quite easily if you need to.
I originally brought it with me to my desk to experience its hourly chime function without having to be woken up on the hour, every hour through the night. Don’t worry, the chime doesn’t actually go off at night. It aligns with your bedtime and alarm settings, or you can just turn it off. Those who like the idea of what is effectively an electronic Nintendo cuckoo clock, I can confirm that a week in, I still haven’t tired of the sound of Pikmin being plucked every hour.
Since the Alarmo has made the move to the living room, it has become more of a tool to remind my son of things than for waking us up or soothing anyone to sleep. Its alarm is set for 8am to let him know when to start getting ready for school, and we’ve been using it to indicate when he has run out of Switch time at the weekends which I’d argue is far more fitting a use for a Nintendo alarm clock than its primary function, especially withthe issues its parental controls app has been experiencing lately.
And It Would Be Silly To Expect Anything More
Nintendo Sound Clock Alarmo
Nintendo’s Alarmo is an alarm clock that tracks your movement while you sleep. You can choose from five games from which the clock will play music and sound effects, with each game having seven scenes to choose from. The Alarmo’s alarm will get more intense if you don’t get out of bed, and then stop automatically once you do get up.
My biggest takeaway from my week with the Alarmo is that this is a toy. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It’s not a sleep aid, nor is it invasive - it hasn’t even asked me for my NSO details yet, although they will be needed if I want to download new themes as they become available. It’s a novelty item that will quickly become a part of the furniture. Again, that isn’t necessarily a negative.
The Alarmo isn’t a clock you play games on, nor is it something that demands you own a Switch just to function. It is simply a Nintendo-themed clock with some fancy gimmicks that will keep you entertained for a little while, and then keep your kids entertained for a little while longer. Having spent the last few days with it, my only real hang-up is the price. While I don’t think any clock needs or should have a higher function, to ask $100 for something so basic seems like a little much. It will likely sell out immediately anyway, but if given the choice, I’d wait for it to pop up in a sale. Knowing Nintendo, that’ll be in about seven years, just as we’re all wondering when the Alarmo 2 will be announced.
A Nintendo Sound Clock Alarmo was provided to TheGamer by Nintendo.
