This game is for you if you're secretly proud of your Excel skills: "While other kids dreamed of spaceships I dreamed of spreadsheets"

Today I watched a video where, in the first 10 second of the trailer, a 3D model in the '90s style kickflips a Dolphin in slowmo while the words "ASSET Flip" flash. This spectacle was so captivating that I immediately downloaded the free Spreadcheat demo on Steam. The game's opening question to potential players asks, "Do YOU have mad Excel skills?"

I like to believe that I have a few spreadsheet tricks that can impress kids. Spreadcheat, however, is a Trojan Horse. Spreadcheat promises the spreadsheet life but is actually a funny and odd puzzle game about a bro-driven 90s business where the boss wants you to prove that you are "cool" and then you need to clean his PC from ads for hot singles in your area and free PalmPilots.

I have already messed with numbers I don't know, fired half of the accounting department and am now looking into upgrading my business card. Apparently "Eggshell White", makes the numbers "cool and legit." I'm cleaning up the blow-up toys from my boss's late-night hijinks, before slamming a Powerpoint together about how "innovation" is in our DNA and making the words zoom and rotate on a background with stars. I finally have a job!

The demo allows you to play the game for about 30 minutes. I would compare it with sudoku. The spreadsheet puzzles are easy at first, but I had trouble with the last one before I understood the functions.

Spreadcheat's appeal is based on the surreal and slightly lurid gags that are thrown at you by a Clippy-like pencil (Corpy). In its current state, Corpy follows my mouse cursor and hovers above the article that I'm writing. It asks if I need any help. It doesn't matter if it is a bug or a feature.

The full-fat version of the game is available on Steam, and will be released early next year. It promises to deliver "the aesthetic pleasure of the ultimate ’90s operating system", complete with MIDI and "256 sparkling colours" -- as well as those "hilarious email attachments" that we all remember. God, this brings me back.

Spreadcheat's producer is the one who deserves the final word. He knows how to sell it. Jack Kristofferson says, "While other children dreamed of spaceships I dreamed of spreadsheets." "Who needs rockets when you can use conditional formatting?"