Fooling Alarmo seems at first an easy task. When my 7 am alarm went off the first time, I did not get out of bed and start my day. Instead, I aggressively waved my hand in front of the clock’s sensors until an inkling from Nintendo’s Splatoon 3 stopped making horrible, gunfire-like splat sounds. Alarmo had been disarmed. I fell back asleep.
Unfortunately for me, bleary-eyed with exhaustion, Alarmo is not like the clock on my phone. A few minutes later, it woke me up again, this time more aggressively with louder sound effects. “If you don’t move, the alarm will begin again,” its screen threatened. I windmilled my arm. We repeated this process several times, until finally I gave in.
Announced earlier this month, Alarmo is the new hardware no one was expecting: a $100 clock featuring themes from beloved Nintendo properties such as The Legend of Zelda, Pikmin, Splatoon, and of course Mario. (Puzzlingly, Ring Fit Adventure rounds out the clock’s initial offerings, over more recognizable properties such as Pokémon, Kirby, or even Animal Crossing. I’ve never played a Nintendo Fit game in my life, so I skipped this theme entirely. Creepy looking characters!)
