Nintendo has released a futuristic yet nostalgic alarm clock called Alarmo

Do you struggle to wake up in the morning? Do you dread the sound of the alarm clock going off to drag you out of bed to face another day? If you’d rather wake up immersed in sounds and music from your favorite Nintendo games, then Alarmo might just be the answer.

Alarmo is now available on the Nintendo Store for $99.99 USD, and requires Nintendo Switch Online in order to function as intended.

Alarmo, the weirdly innovative alarm clock from Nintendo, allows you to pick a scene from your favorite game. When it’s time for you to wake up and take on the day, sounds and music from that scene will play. Even before the alarm goes off, a character from that scene will appear on the clock face, waiting for you to open your eyes. 

Rather than the jarring beep-beep of a regular alarm, Alarmo will start introducing subtle sounds, which will gradually begin to get louder the longer you leave it to go off. You don’t even have to touch the clock to turn it off, as waving your arm at it or moving around in bed will be enough to quieten the noise briefly. There is also a button mode too, if you want to keep things old school. 

According to the Nintendo Store website, if you stay in bed too long and your original visitor isn’t enough to get you out of bed, a more “persuasive” visitor will come along accompanied by much more intense sounds. When you eventually get out of bed, the clock will even celebrate this small victory with fanfare! Honestly, we could all do with someone congratulating us the second we start the day. 

Alarmo is apparently not just for waking up, either. It can track your sleep patterns, including how much you move around in the night, and keeps a record of how long it takes you to get out of bed in the morning. It also plays “Sleepy Sounds”, which is presumably white noise or ambient music from your chosen scene. 

It’s worth noting that Alarmo will only work for you if you have a twin to king-sized bed, so anything out of this range will cause the motion sensor capability to suffer. However, you can just switch to button mode and still enjoy the ambient waking experience. 

So far, there are five games from which to choose scenes:

• Super Mario Odyssey
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Splatoon 3
• Pikmin 4
• Ring Fit Adventure

On top of these five choices for wake-up buddies, if you link your Nintendo Account to your Alarmo, you’ll be able to get Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons wake-up calls when they’re released in future via free updates. 

I’m not sure about anyone else, but I’m incredibly tempted to get one and see how it helps me wake up in the morning. Although having said that, the hour that I spend scrolling on my phone after waking up might make this more annoying than anything else. But still, I’m tempted.