Maitreyi Ramakrishnan grew up a Nintendo kid, through and through. Growing up, the breakout star of Netflix’s Never Have I Ever — and of the new movie, Best of the Best — wasn’t allowed to play violent games like Call of Duty or GTA on Xbox and PlayStation. The Ramakrishnan home was one where the DS and GameCube reigned supreme. Her list of all-time faves is replete with mid-00s bangers straight outta Kyoto: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Kirby Superstar Ultra, Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Super Princess Peach, Pokémon Pearl, Luigi’s Mansion, and Super Paper Mario.
She’s a die-hard Smash fan, and her mastery of the game was hard-won, after years of getting stuck with the crappy, third-party controller with the chewed-up joystick. “I was really, really bad as a kid. But I kept playing. And I slowly started understanding, like, wait, you don’t have to spam things. It’s not random. You can actually choose moves and combos. There’s a method and strategy to this. Once I learned that, I started getting way better and then started beating my cousins all the time,” she explained. “And that’s why I have a Kirby tattoo. That was my first tattoo.”
To all the Kirby haters out there, a word of warning: “I could kick your ass without using down-B once.” She adds, “I actually love to use down-B as a fake-out, because I stop it midway and do something else, and then boom, you’re done.”
Given that her new Netflix movie centers on a Bollywood dance club at UCLA, I assume that Ramakrishnan must be an accomplished dancer. Not quite. But she is pretty good at rhythm games. “I don’t know if the people who make Just Dance know, but they were a part of my education for Best of the Best.”
Before we part, I ask Ramakrishnan if she had a favorite item in the shop she wanted to take a closer look at. Her tastes gravitate toward the old-school. She selects the original Super Smash Bros. for the Nintendo 64, turning over the gray cartridge in her hands with the respectful, cautious reverence usually afforded to a museum specimen. It’s only later, as I’m walking home, that I realize she wasn’t even alive when it came out in 1999.