Nintendo Alarmo review: Charming, yet frustrating

Alarmo is the quintessential Nintendo product: It's a fun and quirky spin on a bedside alarm clock (with a motion sensor!) that mines your love for everything Nintendo. It's a $100 device entirely meant to surprise and delight you. But there are also usability issues that make me think the company's engineers haven't encountered any modern gadgets over the past decade (which is how long they've been developing Alarmo).

Here's an example: There's no easy way to input your Wi-Fi password if you ever want to download new themes. Instead you have to patiently spin its bulbous top button until you land on the character you need, then press it down like Mario squashing a Goomba. That may not sound like much of an issue, especially since you may only need to do it once, but it's needlessly frustrating if you have a complex password with multiple letter cases, numbers and symbols. My password is all lowercase letters, thankfully, but it still took me three minutes to punch it in. Instead of getting some rest, it just made me want to throw Alarmo out of my window(-o).

But then I had it lull me to sleep with the sounds of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. At 6:30am, rascally Koroks roused me from my slumber and made their telltale noises as I shuffled around my bed. And once I got up, they performed Hestu's traditional celebratory dance, much to the chagrin of my sleeping cats. All was forgiven.

So, what is Alarmo?

Nobody actually needs Alarmo (officially dubbed the "Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo"), but its appeal to Nintendo fans is obvious. It wouldn't be out of place as a prop in Mario Odyssey, with its cartoonishly round, red case, nubby feet and prominent control knob (which glows, naturally). Its 2.8-inch screen is surprisingly small and square, not round like some of Nintendo's promotional videos make it seem, and its speakers are loud enough to fill even large bedrooms with undistorted nostalgia bombs. Controlling it is relatively simple: Twist and push the knob, or use the back button to return to the previous screen. You can also view notifications, like updates on your sleep cycle, by tapping the message button.

I'll admit my bias: I was practically raised on Nintendo consoles, so it's almost as if Alarmo was built specifically for someone like me. I don't really mind that Alarmo's large red case doesn't really fit with the clean aesthetic of my bedroom. But I'm sure it'll be a tougher sell if you're sharing a bed with someone less Nintendo-pilled. (More on that below.)

While Alarmo is mostly pitched as an alarm clock with Nintendo themes — at launch, there are sounds and characters from Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 3, Pikmin 4 and (strangely enough) Ring Fit Adventure — it also adds a bit of Nintendo charm throughout your day. Alarmo can produce hourly chimes, and also play "Sleepy Sounds" related to your theme. For Breath of the Wild, that includes the crackling of a campfire, nocturnal animals and delightful snippets of the game's score. (I could be mistaken, but it also sounds like there's a bit of score from the moments before a Blood Moon arrives. I hope Nintendo snips that out eventually — nobody wants to go to bed dreading a Blood Moon.)

Does Alarmo actually work?

As an alarm clock, Alarmo gets the job done. It managed to wake me up successfully every day over the past week, and it did so far less jarringly than my iPhone's blaring speaker. It simply felt pleasant to be welcomed into the world by Koroks and Mario. Every toss and turn triggered more sound effects, which slowly nudged me awake. In its default "Steady Mode," Alarmo also gets progressively louder the longer you stay in bed, and more nefarious characters like Bowser might make an appearance. But if you just want things to stay super chill, there's also a "Gentle Mode" that doesn't escalate noise. Alarmo also responds to the mere act of getting out of bed with a huge celebration — honestly, it's about time someone recognized the effort.

While Nintendo provides some rudimentary sleep statistics, based on Alarmo's motion sensing and your alarm settings, they're mostly useless. I think my numbers may have been skewed by my three cats, who sleep on my bed for most of the day, and may be triggering the device's motion sensor. I certainly wish I could have slept for the 17 hours it recorded at one point. (I'm lucky to get six hours these days.) Even if Alarmo's sleep-tracking was functional, there's not much you can do with the data, since it's all stuck on the device. That's one of many areas where having a separate app would have been useful. (You'd think it would work with Pokemon Sleep, but no!)

Another issue? Alarmo's unique motion sensing technology is only made for a single sleeper (just like Google’s latest Nest Hub). If you're in bed beside a partner or unruly kids, Nintendo recommends switching to "Button mode," where you have to tap the top knob to disable the alarm. At least it's easy to change Alarmo's modes, and if you leave the sensor on by mistake, it's not the end of the world when it actually goes off. You'll hear a bit more noise than usual, but you can still hit the top button to quiet things down.

Setting up Alarmo

There are only three things inside Alarmo's box: The device itself, a USB Type A to USB-C cable and a small instruction booklet. Notably missing is a USB power adapter. That's something we've grown used to with smartphones and some of Nintendo's handhelds, but not bundling one is still a pain for anyone who doesn't have spare power adapters. I can just imagine a parent trying to set up Alarmo for their eager child, only to be delayed for a day because they need to run out and buy a separate adapter. That's not surprising and delightful, Nintendo. It's just annoying.

The actual onboarding process is pretty straightforward. Once you plug it in, Alarmo teaches you how to use its top dial and button, and explains how the back button works. You can also rotate the dial to adjust its volume and the device directs you to wave your hand in front of it to test its motion sensing. You have to direct Alarmo's orientation towards your bed and make sure it has a clear view of your sleeping area at the edge of a nightstand or table. The motion sensing won't work if it's too high.

To finish off the setup process, you have to lay down and make sure Alarmo can actually detect your movement. That worked without much fuss on my end, but when it asked me to sit up and lean in a specific direction, there was a delay of a few minutes before it noticed correctly when I was leaning to the right.

At the very least, Nintendo didn't force me to connect to Wi-Fi during the initial setup. Instead, that's triggered when you choose to update its themes, and the entire process required is just frustrating, as I described above. Now, it's not as if Nintendo hasn't learned to use QR codes via websites and apps to simplify logins. You also have to sign in to your Nintendo account once Alarmo is connected to Wi-Fi, but I was thankfully able to use a QR code to do so over my iPhone.

I suppose Nintendo wanted to have a simpler onboarding experience for Alarmo, one that didn't require external authentication or an additional app. But that desire for simplicity still leads to needless frustration.

It would be nice to see a wider selection of themes, as well. I’m not sure many Nintendo fans are clamoring to re-experience the characters and music from Ring Fit Adventure, after all. Where’s Kirby? Where’s Mario Kart? If there’s room for Splatoon and Pikmin, there should be room for Nintendo’s more iconic franchises.

Is Alarmo worth it?

I'm no stranger to tech-infused alarms. My nightstand is already overloaded with gadgets, including an Amazon Echo Dot (which I use to play radio stations), an older Phillips SmartSleep rise light, a Homedics white noise machine, my iPhone 15 Pro Max (charging on a Belkin MagSafe stand) and a Hatch Baby video monitor. As much as I appreciated having bits of Nintendo magic in my bedroom, I didn't love it enough to replace any of the devices I'm already using.

But my daughter Sophia is another story. We've played through most of Tears of the Kingdom together, and I've done my best to teach her in the ways of Nintendo. (I'll save the issues with the company's extreme litigiousness for when she's older.) She's eager to use Alarmo to wake up on her own, without my early-morning badgering. She also loves Koroks, so I'm pretty sure the Zelda theme will be permanently enabled. At least, until Kirby arrives.

I'm not going to try and justify the need for a $100 alarm clock. If you're a big enough Nintendo fan, you've probably already locked in your pre-order. And there's a chance it'll become more compelling over time, if Nintendo manages to add themes and drive down the price. For now, though, it’s a reminder that Nintendo can do more than just churn out consoles and games. There’s still room for the company to take weird swings, it’s just too bad Alarmo is expensive and imperfect.