Nintendo Sound Clock Alarmo | Hands-on Impressions & Photo Gallery

Nintendo releasing a new piece of hardware at this point in 2024 that ISN’T the successor to the Switch likely wasn’t on many people’s Bingo cards. Especially one that came onto the scene this abruptly. But here we are. Nintendo unveiled their interactive alarm clock, Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo, to the world with the intent of changing how people wake up each day. Well, we got one of these things are are going to talk about it and show you the device. Let’s get into it. 

Concept

At quick glance, Alarmo may look like a normal alarm clock with some Nintendo pizazz. While this is partly true, the device brings a little bit more than that. At launch, a Nintendo Switch Online membership is required to purchase the device either online or at Nintendo retail locations (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and New York). Alarmo will go on sale to the general public in mid-February in Japan and mid-January elsewhere.

Alarmo packs a 2.8 inch (roughly 7.1 cm) screen that shows the time and a variety of other elements. The device sports “scenes” from five different Nintendo titles - Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 3, Pikmin 4 and Ring Fit Adventure. Linking your Nintendo Account and making use of Wi-Fi will enable fans to download updates and two additional scenes when they become available. As of right now, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons are in the works. You’re free to select whichever title you like with your favorite Nintendo characters appearing on the screen. 

The alarm function is one of the most interesting aspects of Alarmo. Using one of the 35 included themes, the clock will gradually wake you up with music and sounds from one of the included Nintendo titles. This hands free experience focuses on your body and hand movements, though you are able to opt for a more traditional experience with “Button Mode.” The device also offers sleep tracking based on your movements while sleeping. 

Overall, it’s an interesting concept. For more on the development of Alarmo, I suggest checking out the super interesting “Ask the Developer” that Nintendo has over on it’s site talking with the two lead developers, Yosuke Tamori and Tetsuya Akama. You can find that right here. 

Look & Feel

I completed my order for Alarmo here in Japan roughly 20 minutes after they went live on the online My Nintendo Store. Even with that said, I still had to wait a week before receiving it. It’s still likely going to be awhile before I can give my proper thoughts on this device. That will likely come later in some kind of a review. For now and from just messing around with the device, it feels very durable. 

While the display area is round, there is actually a smaller rectangular display in the center. I can’t quite tell by just looking, but definitely doesn’t seem like a HD screen, but rather a standard definition screen. It almost seems like a repurposed Game & Watch screen from the Mario and Zelda releases a few years ago, which is not a bad thing. 

Regardless of where you purchase the device, there are tons of language options. I live and bought the device in Japan, but have completed all of the settings in English. In terms of sound, the speakers on Alarmo are surpassingly robust and quite loud. Just for the initial setup, I ended up turning it down since it was louder than I anticipated. 

Alarmo has the ability to connect to the internet for firmware updates and downloading new titles and themes. Even though the device just released within the past few days, Nintendo has already pushed out an update, bringing the firmware to version 2.0.0. Unfortunately, the additional Mario Kart 8 and Animal Crossing: New Horizon themes were not available for download as of right now. 

From just this close inspection of the device and messing around with it, Alarmo is a pretty nice alarm clock. Time will tell if this will be something I use for a long time to come.

Photo Gallery

Below, you can find some photos of Alarmo, some of which will be alongside some other Nintendo devices for reference. Enjoy!

Conclusion

Alarmo is a cool little device and I’m excited to try it out. Of course, as I just got this in the mail today, I don’t really have any detailed thoughts on how this works for me personally or practically. That’s a topic for another time. Regardless, I think the idea is interesting and the build quality here is great. If you want further thoughts on Alarmo, I’m hoping to cover this more in future [videos] articles here on the website. 

But let’s turn things over to you guys. What do you think of Nintendo Sound Clock Alarmo? Did you pick one up? Do you plan on it? Sound off in the comments down below. We’d love to hear form you.