Nintendo’s next hardware release isn’t the Switch 2, it’s a very noisy alarm clock

Wake up babe, new Nintendo hardware just dropped

Nintendo

Wake up! Nintendo just announced a new hardware product. But it’s not the rumored Switch 2 — not even close, actually. Instead, it’s a sleep-tracking alarm clock that’s packed with Nintendo weirdness (and Nintendo sounds, it makes a lot of sounds). 

Nintendo has officially revealed its next product, the Nintendo Sound Clock: Alarmo. Alarmo is a strange, round alarm clock with a display on front and a big, light-up button on the top. It’s got a motion sensor that detects when you’re moving – both in your sleep and when you’re awake – that lets you snooze your alarm clock with motion alone or stop it entirely just by getting out of bed. 

At launch, Alarmo has 35 “scenes,” which are little animation sets from five different games – Super Mario Odyssey, Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 3, Pikmin 4, and Ring Fit Adventure – each paired with a set of sounds and pictures. Set a Super Mario Odyssey scene, for example, and you’ll wake up to the sounds of Pauline singing “Jump Up Superstar,” and lots of coin sounds. Switch to a Splatoon scene and you’ll hear some banging Splatoon music and very threatening Splatoon weapon shout sounds. That’s sure to get you out of bed. 

The Alarmo will get more scenes in the future if you connect it to the internet, with scenes based on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Animal Crossing: New Horizons said to be coming in the future. 

As revealed in an “Ask the Developer” article on Nintendo’s website, the Alarmo uses a radio wave sensor to detect movement. This is similar to the kind of sensors used in self-driving cars, and per Nintendo’s developers, is very sensitive to subtle movements. It can also be used in the dark, and doesn’t need cameras or microphones to do what it does, which is great for privacy since it’ll be connected to the internet. 

“The motion sensor used in this device detects a sleeper's movements, and there are certain body movements that they make just before waking up,” product developer Yosuke Tamori says. “From an early stage, we thought that if we could get this sensor to detect the timing of these movements, people could use it to help themselves wake up feeling refreshed.” 

The Alarmo will set you back $99.99, and right now you’ll need to be a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscriber if you want to pick one up from the Nintendo Store. That requirement will be dropped in the future, though, with general availability said to be coming in January at retailers and online. If you don’t want to wait for January and aren’t a NSO+ subscriber, you can also pick one up at the Nintendo NY Store without being a subscriber.