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!)

It’s a palm-size, Mario-red device with a giant white button and a toylike texture reminiscent of the Fisher Price kitchen sets I played with as a kid. It looks ridiculous on my nightstand next to my overpriced candles, hardcovers, and Urban Outfitters salt lamp. It invokes a deep, soothing sense of nostalgia that the more cynical part of my brain believes Nintendo has perfected with lab-like precision.

You may be asking yourself the same question I, a 35-year-old woman with a 401(k) and credit card debt, was when Nintendo shipped me a free Alarmo to try: Do I really need this?

Personality Machine

In 2024, when you can use your phone as both a free alarm and sound machine with very little effort, owning an alarm clock almost feels like a conscious act of whimsy. It is a choice to go out and purchase a physical device that’s sole purpose is to get you up in time for Zoom meetings, school, or that 6 am fitness class you’ve been trying to make.

Nintendo isn’t breaking the mold in offering you a clock that includes motion sensors or sound effects. It is selling you on the power of its characters. It’s selling you on personality.

At launch, Alarmo has only five themes to choose from, but Nintendo has promised more in the form of free updates—as long as you’ve connected it online and to a Nintendo account.