Cheating Alarm seems At first an easy task. When the 7am alarm first went off, I didn’t get out of bed and start my day. Instead, I aggressively waved my hand in front of the watch’s sensors until a hint of the Nintendo device Splatoon 3 He stopped making horrible gunshot-like sounds. Alarm had been disarmed. I fell asleep again.
Unfortunately for me, bleary-eyed from fatigue, Alarm is not like the clock on my phone. A few minutes later it woke me up again, this time more aggressively and with louder sound effects. “If you don’t move, the alarm will ring again,” it threatened on its screen. I moved my arm. We repeated this process several times, until I finally gave in.
Announced earlier this month, Alarmo is the new hardware no one expected: a $100 watch themed around beloved Nintendo properties like The legend of Zelda, Pikmin, Splatoonand of course Mario. (Disconcertingly, Ring-shaped adventure completes the initial offerings of the watch, on more recognizable properties such as Pokémon, Kirbyor even animal crossing. I’ve never played a Nintendo Fit game in my life, so I skipped this topic entirely. Creepy looking characters!)
It’s a red, palm-sized Mario device with a giant white button and a toy-like texture reminiscent of the Fisher Price cooking games I played with as a kid. It looks ridiculous on my nightstand next to my expensive candles, my hardcovers, and my Urban Outfitters salt lamp. It invokes a deep, comforting sense of nostalgia that the most cynical part of my brain believes Nintendo has perfected with laboratory precision.
You might be asking yourself the same question I, a 35-year-old woman with a 401K and credit card debt, did when Nintendo sent me a free Alarm to try: Do I really need this?
personality machine
In 2024, when you can use your phone as a free alarm and sound machine with very little effort, having an alarm clock almost seems like a conscious act of fantasy. It’s an option to go out and buy a physical device whose sole purpose is to get you up in time for Zoom meetings, school, or that 6am exercise class you’ve been trying to attend.
Nintendo doesn’t break the mold by offering you a watch that includes motion sensors or sound effects. He’s selling you the power of his characters. He’s selling you personality.
At launch, Alarmo has just five themes to choose from, but Nintendo has already promised more in the form of free updates, as long as you’ve already connected it online to a Nintendo Account.