Bear or shark? Pick the fight, then read who wins.

In Fictional FaceOff, you pick a hero from the old stories and an animal from the real world, then pick where they fight. Everybody guesses who wins and why, and then you read what happened.

Coming soon to Google PlayiPhone is next.

Grizzly bear
Great white shark

How a fight works

  1. Pick two fighters

    Sixty to choose from. Thirty heroes from myths, legends and history, and thirty animals, dinosaurs included.

  2. Pick the place

    Forest, beach or ocean. A shark is a very different fighter in the woods.

  3. Talk it over, then guess

    One question to argue about out loud. Then everybody picks a winner and a reason.

  4. Read the story

    A short story of what happened, then who called it, and whether the reason was right too.

Made for the car and for bedtime

Kid vs. Grown-up

The kid picks one fighter and a grown-up picks the other. Nobody sees the other guess until the fight starts, and the app keeps score of whose pick wins.

Bedtime mode

One calm story on a dim screen, and no ads. It ends the night on a story instead of a scroll.

21,240 stories, all written ahead of time

Every matchup in every place has its own stories. Each one passed checks for reading level and for kid safety before it went into the app, so nothing gets made up on the fly.

Every fight has a clear winner, and the story ends on the winning move. No blood, and the real people from history never get bitten.

A real one from the appGrizzly bear vs. Great white shark, at the beach

The shark swam too close to shore, and the bear stood ready.

The shark sped through the shallows, chasing the big shape on the sand.

The grizzly stood tall on two legs and slammed the water with heavy paws.

The tide rolled out quickly. The shark's belly dragged against the rough, rocky sand.

The grizzly leaned over the trapped swimmer and brought down a heavy paw.

The grizzly wins.

The shallow water and sand belong to the bear.

The roster

Thirty heroes and thirty animals. In the app, tap any fighter for their stats, their special move, their weakness and one true fact.

  • Abraham Lincoln
  • Achilles
  • Anaconda
  • Anansi
  • Archimedes
  • Atalanta
  • Bald eagle
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Beowulf
  • Bigfoot
  • Blackbeard
  • Blue whale
  • Captain Nemo
  • Cheetah
  • Cú Chulainn
  • Davy Crockett
  • Electric eel
  • Elephant
  • Finn McCool
  • Giant squid
  • Gorilla
  • Great horned owl
  • Great white shark
  • Grizzly bear
  • Hercules
  • Hippo
  • Honey badger
  • Hua Mulan
  • Joan of Arc
  • John Henry
  • Kangaroo
  • King Arthur
  • Leonidas
  • Lion
  • Mantis shrimp
  • Megalodon
  • Merlin
  • Miyamoto Musashi
  • Orca
  • Paul Bunyan
  • Pecos Bill
  • Peregrine falcon
  • Peter Pan
  • Polar bear
  • Porcupine
  • Rhino
  • Robin Hood
  • Saltwater crocodile
  • Sherlock Holmes
  • Skunk
  • Snapping turtle
  • Sun Wukong
  • Swordfish
  • T. rex
  • Theodore Roosevelt
  • Thor
  • Tiger
  • Walrus
  • William Tell
  • Woolly mammoth

Questions parents ask

How much does it cost?

It’s free with ads. A one-time $1.99 turns the ads off for good.

Where do the ads show up?

After a fight’s result, and never more than one every few minutes. Never in the middle of a story, and never in Bedtime mode.

Does it need the internet?

No. The stories and the fighters are all on the phone. It only goes online to show an ad.

Who is it for?

Families. The stories are written at about a 3rd to 4th grade reading level, so a kid can read them alone or a grown-up can read them out loud.

Is it violent?

Every fight has a winner, but the story stops at the winning move. Think of the end of a wrestling match, not a nature documentary.

Are the heroes real people?

Ten of them are, like Abraham Lincoln and Joan of Arc. The rest come from myths, legends and old books. The fights are made up, but every fighter card has one true fact.

Does the favorite always win?

Usually, not always. Upsets happen, and the clever underdogs pull them off more often.