To stand in the shadow of games like Tetris, Puzzle Bobble, Pang, Zoo Keeper, Bomberman. You need to be good. Sadly, Ice Breaker isn't
Why? Well, I could rant on about the stupid design, the boring graphics, the fiddly moving around the screen or the fussy graphics but I won't, I'll get to the point.
Of all the games to get 'right', puzzle games, from a developers point of view, must be by far the hardest. What you are aiming for is simple, addictive, instant, no frills fun.
Ice Breaker has frills, it takes some time to get going and isn't all that addictive. So-much-so, switching it off, gives quite a sense of relief.
Other aspects of games like Tetris or Pang etc,. give the impression they are labour of a single Genius. A person labouring night and day to produce the perfect (mathematically speaking) game.
Ice Breaker seems to have been designed by committee. Each member chipping in with a word of 'this is what the kids want' wisdom.
You can almost see with Ice Breaker, if you squint with one eye, that perhaps at one point it may have been one mans labour of love. Then marketing saw that labour and sent a memo.
Everything went downhill from there.
It crops up on eBay pretty frequently, one for collectors only!
3DO Kid.
I found this review quite interesting (though depressing) since I am that lone man you speak of... btw did you know my sequel was finally released? a new 3DO game after over ten years! But I guess you wouldn't have liked it...