Nintendo Alarmo review: better than expected

The whole world is waiting for the Switch 2. Instead, Nintendo released an alarm clock. The interactive bedside clock Alarmo is equipped with a motion sensor and numerous sounds from Nintendo games. They’re meant to make it easier to get up in the morning and start your day full of energy.

I tested Nintendo’s alarm clock for a week – and was pleasantly surprised.

Design and ease of use: excellent

Alarmo looks like it’s straight out of a Mario game. With the main body of it being bright red, the clock stands out on my bedside table. The design may be a matter of taste, but Nintendo has definitely succeeded with the finish – this device feels high-quality.

There are two black feet at the back of the alarm clock. And underneath, there’s a small rubber attachment to prevent Alarmo from slipping when you use it.

I mostly operate the clock using the large plastic knob on the top. Turning it to the left or right lets you navigate through the menus. To confirm something, I press the button. It feels cool, and the fun’s still there even a week later. There are also two small buttons on the top: a back button and one that shows new messages with tips and stats on my sleep behaviour.

Nintendo’s alarm clock doesn’t have a battery, so you always need to connect it to the power supply. The USB-C cable is attached to the underside and can be pulled through between the two feet. This means you can’t see it, depending on the viewing angle and positioning of the clock.

The only thing that didn’t win me over completely was the clock display. It’s not round, as a lot of press material and my own photos might suggest. The screen is actually rectangular and takes up about half of the available space. What’s also a shame is that it’s not an OLED display. This means that at night I can see the outline of the bright square even on dark backgrounds.

Wake up with Nintendo

The clock features alarm sounds from the following games: Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 3, Pikmin 4 and Ring Fit Adventure. If I connect the alarm clock to the Internet, Animal Crossing and Mario Kart 8 are also meant to come as free updates.

There are seven different scenes from each game that can be used to wake me up. These scenes usually consist of a piece of music and sounds from that specific game. In addition, the LED in the knob lights up in different colours when the alarm sounds. Although I was sceptical at first, these unconventional alarms soon win me over.

It just feels cool to wake up to background music from Breath of the Wild while listening to Link fluttering through the air on his paraglider. Or opening your eyes to the theme tune from Super Mario Odyssey while Mario beats up a watchdog in the background. I wake up in a cloud of nostalgia and really want to play through the games again.

It’s also cool that you can leave the choice of wake-up call to chance – either across all scenes or limited to a specific game. So, one morning I wake up to the fitness instructor from Ring Fit Adventure and the next to a burst of fire from Splatoon 3. You can watch hear all the available alarm sounds in this video:

It also uses the motion sensor I already mentioned in the wake-up process. If I move while the alarm is ringing, it becomes quieter and plays a more relaxed version after enough movement.

The sensor stops the alarm completely when it registers I’ve got out of bed. A short fanfare then sounds and the alarm clock switches to monitoring mode. This means that if I go back to bed within an hour, the alarm starts all over again. In exceptional cases, I can override the motion sensor manually by pressing the knob and deactivating the alarm completely.

If I lie down too long, the alarm gets really unpleasant. In Super Mario Odyssey, Bowser terrorises me with his voice and explosions. Meanwhile, in Breath of the Wild, the piano keys start to tinkle and I’m targeted and attacked by one of the unrelenting Guardians. A sound that still makes me panic years after the game’s release.

I can determine how intensively – i.e. how quickly and loud – I want to be woken up based on three intensity levels. You can also completely deactivate the motion sensor for the wake-up call. If you choose to do that, you can only switch off the alarm clock in the classic way by pressing the knob.

Funny gimmicks

The sensor is also used for some of the clock’s other functions. For instance, Alarmo automatically plays relaxing snooze sounds after my set bedtime. The Breath of the Wild version with its audio of a cosy, crackling campfire is particularly cool.

At night, the clock uses its motion sensor to record my movements while I sleep and summarises them for me the next evening. It’s a nice gimmick, but nothing more. My Garmin watch delivers much more useful information about my sleep patterns.

At night, the sensor is also used to switch the screen on and off. If the clock notices me moving, the display lights up automatically. This works well, even though the sensor is a bit too sensitive, making the screen light up too often.

There’s another gimmick that doesn’t rely on the motion sensor that I really enjoyed: the hourly tones. If you want, you can set the Alarmo to emit funny sounds on the hour. Depending on which game I’ve set as my alarm clock, I can hear little Pikmin being plucked or Mario collecting coins – to varying degrees, depending on the time. It’s a simple function, but one that always puts a smile on my face.

Less thrilled: girlfriend and dog

The motion sensor always worked well when I tested it out – as long as I was alone in bed or got up on my own. My girlfriend isn’t the type to jump out of bed in the morning as soon as the alarm goes off. When I get out of bed, Alarmo recognises this and plays the fanfare. It then stops the alarm and starts monitoring mode. If my girlfriend then moves and attracts the sensor’s attention, the alarm goes off again. When she gets up, Alarmo doesn’t always recognise this as she’s on the other side of the bed. The alarm then continues to go off. Annoying.

It’s the same problem with my dog. At the weekend, we let our furry friend Lino into bed in the morning so we can cuddle him. When we get up and Lino stays in bed, the alarm reactivates because of his movements.

I’d like to have the option to switch off the annoying monitoring mode. That way I could also use the motion sensor with my girlfriend and dog. Without this option, I have no choice but to switch over completely to the button wake-up call and not use the motion sensor.

Not enough options

I’d also like to see more settings on the alarm clock. Alarmo only lets me save one alarm. If I change something – be it the time or alarm tone intensity – I always have to start from the beginning. This is an unnecessary restriction that massively limits the device’s functionality and flexibility.

The snooze sounds are also restricted – these don’t play for longer than five minutes. That’s far too short for most people to fall asleep to. It’s also annoying that I can’t start the snooze manually or select sounds independently of the selected alarm. If Pikmin is defined as the alarm sound, it also plays those snooze sounds.

The same goes for the hourly tones. There’s another catch to them, which makes my girlfriend and Lino hate me. These hourly tones switch on automatically after an alarm has ended. Last Monday I got up at 6 a.m. – my girlfriend and the dog were bothered twice more in bed with annoying hourly tones and had no idea how to turn them off. This is another instance where I have no choice but to switch off the actually super-cool hourly tones completely.

We can only hope that Nintendo will add additional sounds as well as new functions to the clock in future software updates. In any case, Alarmo will stay plugged in near my bed even after this test – even if I can only use this strange device to its full potential some of the time.

Alarmo is currently only available if you have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. The device is set to be expanded to general sale in January 2025.

Sound like music to your ears? There’s even more Alarmo in the latest podcast episode of Tech-telmechtel.