17 years ago today, LEGO Battles released.
When first approached by the LEGO Group, developer Hellbent wanted to introduce a new type of gameplay to the brand, which they called "build and battle".
11 years ago today, LEGO Jurassic World released.
This one was actually first teased in another game: in the end credits of LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham, Plastic Man, in the shape of a dinosaur, appears on screen as the Jurassic Park theme plays.
It also has quite the strange mechanic: a lever that can be pushed to eject the creaking heart from the tree, likely so you don't have to manually open it up to retrieve it. Pretty neat!
The game would go on to do a similar thing with its credits, with Alan Grant digging up a Keystone from the upcoming LEGO Dimensions.