Video Game / Dave and Bambi: Golden Apple Edition

NEVER COMIN' BACK AGAIN!

Dave and Bambi: Golden Apple Edition is a Friday Night Funkin' mod and a Recursive Adaptation of Vs. Dave and Bambi created by Sky! that features a multitude of 3D Bambi clones (and a couple of Dave), a few of which come from fan creations found on the team's Discord server. The mod originally consisted only of the first 2 songs, but was later expanded vastly into what it is now.

In an Alternate Continuity, Dave has mastered his 3D powers from the original mod, which were originally unstable to an apocalyptic level, and Boyfriend is taken along for the ride. Along the way, he encounters Expunged again, and discovers it has a younger (and kinder) brother named Bandu. The rest of the mod features Boyfriend and Bandu's various misadventures through the polygonized realm, which is revealed to contain an entire population of shapeshifting Bambi-like people.

The mod can be downloaded on GameBanana here.

Song List

Main Songs

1. Disruption (3D Bambi)
2. Applecore (Bandu, 3D Bambi, and Expunged)
3. Disability (3D Dave)
4. Wireframe (Decimated Dave and Bandu/Badai)
5. Algebra (Dave's Fun Algebra Class)
6. Deformation (The Trixes)
7. Ferocious (Garrett's Funny Animal Game)

Extras

1. Sugar Rush (Bandu)
2. Gift Card (Bandu)
3. The Big Dingle (Dingle and Donk)
4. Ready Loud (Bandu vs Flumpty)
5. Dale (Dale)
6. Unhinged (Unhinged Dave)
7. Origin (True Form!Bandu)
8. Bookworm (Bambi)
9. Sart Producer (Sart Producer)
10. Apprentice (Tristan)
11. Alternate (David)
12. Cuberoot (Dave vs Bambi)
13. Resumed (Dambai and Dambu)
14. Theft (Garrett)
15. Too Shiny (Diamond Man)

OCs

1. Tantalum (Ringi)
2. Strawberry (Bambom)
3. Keyboard (Bendu)
4. Sillier (Blogblez)

If you know, you know

1. OG (OG Dave)
2. Galactic (Nupersovae Bambi)
3. Sick Tricks (Roblox Dave)

Covers

1. Cycles (Bandu vs Sart Producer)
2. Thunderstorm (Dave)
3. Sunshine (Bandu Doll)
4. Left Unchecked (Dave vs Bandu)
5. Collision (Diamond Man vs Do You Accept)

Joke Songs

1. Wheels (Dave but Awesome)
2. Poopers (Dave's Awesome Son)
3. The Boopadoop Song (Cynda)
4. Slices (Bandu)

Secret

1. Dave x Bambi Shipping Cute (Dave vs Bambi)
2. RECOVERED-PROJECT (Forgotten Dave)
3. Ticking (???)
4. Cell (Cell)

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• Acid-Trip Dimension: Most of the mod's songs take place in nebulous voids similar to the one in "Polygonized", usually filled with various objects befitting the character. The weirdest it gets is (fittingly) during Expunged's portion of "Applecore", where the phones that normally litter the background are broken and have tentacles coming out of their screens.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Dave has managed to gain control of his Reality Warper powers in this mod, being able to manipulate the 3D realm without putting the 2D world in danger.
  • Bambi wasn't able to turn 3D in the original mod, but now appears in such a form thanks to assistance from Dave.
  • In the original mod, there was never any indication that Tristan had Reality Warper abilities like Dave did. Here, he effortlessly turns himself and everyone around him 3D and back during "Apprentice".
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • While Expunged's true alignment is unknown in the original D&B, it appears to act like a neutral figure that only antagonizes players that try to cheat. In this mod, it appears halfway through "Applecore" for a Hostile Show Takeover, eating Bandu and Bambi to do so. The former of those two is even its own brother!
  • This mod's version of Dave is a megalomaniac who resents Boyfriend and tries to dispose of him through Bambi and later his Powered Armor because he wants to be the only person in the world who can control the 3D realm.
• All There in the Manual: Much of the mod's lore comes from Word of God on the team's Discord server and Twitter accounts.
• Art Shift: The whole mod has the opponents taking on the 3D aesthetic of Vs. Dave and Bambi's "Polygonized", "Cheating", and "Unfairness". The only characters that aren't made of 3D objects are Green Alien Monitor, Diamond Man, and Playrobot in "Algebra".
• Ascended Extra: In the original Vs. Dave and Bambi, Expunged appears only in the two No Fair Cheating songs and has zero relation to the story. In this mod, while it still appears only at the second half of "Applecore", its appearance is given the emphasis of a final boss or mastermind of sorts. Expunged is also stated by Word of God to have created a number of the mod's (currently unreleased) characters and has connections to a few others, most notably being Bandu's brother.
• Bait-and-Switch: Happens a few times in "Algebra".
  • The end of Dave's first segment has the song naturally fade out into an ending, complete with a few seconds of silence before Garrett suddenly appears and begins his own song.
  • When Garrett starts singing for a second section, he's quickly interrupted by an angry Dave before Boyfriend can even start singing, signaling the start of Dave's Villainous Breakdown.
  • Playrobot's section starts off very calm and slow-paced, giving what seems like a nice breather after the hellish Diamond Man section. This doesn't last very long, however, as Dave hacks Playrobot with a virus that causes it to accelerate to nearly the same speed as the aforementioned Diamond Man.
• Berserk Button:
  • Classic Dave's is being interrupted when he's trying to sing, as this is what ends up causing his Villainous Breakdown.
  • Also in "Algebra", Diamond Man seems to antagonize Boyfriend because he apparently thinks Diamond Man is too shiny for him.
  Diamond Man: OKAY UH YOU THINK IM TOO SHINY FOR YOU, WELL IM GONNA GET YOU NOW
• Be Yourself: Inverted; as the 3D realm is malleable, being able to change one's self-identity in search of happiness is a central theme of some of the mod's characters:
  • Bandu looks like Bambi because he learned that he felt comfortable in the latter's appearance, and has the added bonus points of being trans.
  • Ringi himself doesn't fit this trope's inversion, but it's implied he may have taught it to Bambom, though he might have gone a little overboard.
  • Bambom is unusually well-informed in gender identity for a five-year-old and shakes up his own on occasion, but it's implied the kid is happier for it.
• Big Brother Worship: Bandu looks up to his brother Expunged and really wants it to like him. This is shown in "Wireframe" when he hijacks Dave with a new form called Badai, which he made in an attempt to emulate and impress Expunged.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Classic Dave starts off "Algebra" with an upbeat and friendly attitude towards Boyfriend, but as the song goes on and more characters keep taking turns of their own, he gets angrier and angrier, consistently rants that It's All About Me, and even hijacks Playrobot's section to make it way harder.
• Bland-Name Product: Bandu's favorite restaurant is 3D Hut (Pizza Hut), and Ringi's favorite is 3Donalds (McDonalds).
• The Blank: The unfinished Forgotten Dave in "Recovered_Project" has no semblance of a face.
• Breather Episode: In terms of story, "Algebra" is a much lighter and goofier romp with Dave and friends compared to the cinematic showdown with Decimated Dave and Badai that "Wireframe" entails and the horror show that is "Deformation".
• Chase Scene: One occurs at the end of "Ferocious", with Garrett riding Paloose Man's car to try and catch a fleeing Boyfriend.
• Cheerful Child: Bambom gives off this vibe with his invokedMoe design and Word of God stating he is 8 years old.
• Competence Zone: Mid-teens. Ringi is stated as being somewhere between 15 and 17 (given the nature of the 3D realm's inhabitants, this could refer to his physical and/or mental age without respect to time), and is the least neurotic and/or childish of the Golden Apple cast, who are all either older or younger than him. The only real issues he has are a potential obsession with Boyfriend and being egotistical enough to give others plush dolls of himself, but even then he's too nice to let those get the better of him. It's a bit of a zigzagging situation, however, as another character in this zone is Dale.
• Cosmetic Award: Beating a song in the mod allows you to play as any character and form featured in that song when using the extras menu.
• Decomposite Character: Two of the songs in the "If you know, you know" menu feature older designs of Dave and Bambi as separate characters, with Dave using his pre-alpha design (a recolor of Daddy Dearest) and Bambi being based on his joke design.
• Eldritch Location: The 3D world itself can easily be considered this, being a place where just about anyone can do anything their hearts desire that's inhabited by several shapeshifting, Bambi-like beings with strange powers.
• Establishing Character Moment: "Applecore" gives one for both Bandu and Golden Apple's version of Expunged.
  • Bandu starts the song circling Boyfriend surrounded by phones, and seems to be signing off a video he's making before starting to sing.
    Bandu: Holy shit, that was disgusting… 3 hours… fucking… 3 hours. Thanks for watching. But like, Don't Try This at Home, because that's gross. Well, goodbye.
  • Expunged turns the background red before appearing in the background of the song, swallows Bandu and Bambi whole and says a completely nonsensical Bond One-Liner.
    Expunged: Moldy be like.
• Fangirl: Ringi is a male example of the trope, pulling Boyfriend in for "Metallic" because of how much he idolizes him. Unlike most examples of this in mods, though, Ringi is a Nice Guy and isn't interested in harming Boyfriend or interfering with his relationship with Girlfriend.
• Funny Foreigner: Bendu is stated to be Mexican, wears a sombrero at all times, has rather silly movements even for one of Expunged's creations, and bears a permanent cat smile on his face.
• Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Classic Dave tries to berate the others in "Algebra" after Playrobot's turn, but the result is rather underwhelming due to him letting off a string of child-friendly curses and euphemisms.
  Classic Dave: You little ragamuffin! I'm tired of your tomfoolery! Every gosh darn time I try to sing, a little junker comes and ruins it! Now, get a load of my badonkadonk!
• Handicapped Badass: Dave is still confined to his wheelchair, but he's even more powerful in this mod than in the original, now being able to control his Reality Warper powers.
• Hostile Show Takeover:
  • Happens twice in "Applecore"; the first is when Bambi shows up, interrupting Bandu's section and speeding up the tempo considerably, and the second is when Expunged appears in the background and eats both Bandu and Bambi.
  • Halfway through "Wireframe", Decimated Dave is knocked out of the way by Badai, a form Bandu took specifically to steal the spotlight and imitate Expunged's "Unfairness" form.
  • This happens so many times in "Algebra" that it's a Running Gag, with Dave getting angrier as the rest of the Dave's Algebra cast keep interrupting his turn: first Garret takes over the song, then Dave takes it back, then Garret tries to take it again only for Dave to angrily barge in and insult him (the song even keeps Garrett's music style despite Dave singing); the Green Alien Monitor, Diamond Man, and Playrobot follow, with Dave infecting Playrobot with a virus before properly taking the song again for the rest of its duration.
  • A similar, but more dynamic case happens in "Ferocious". The song begins with Garrett confronting Boyfriend for hacking, then pulling out PLAY_TIME_2_0 to continue the song. Then Boyfriend is chased by the Paloose Man for rapping in the halls and is put in jail, where Garrett gets another section through the "Pad of the Future". It's a Wizard then magicks Boyfriend back to the hall and fights him himself, followed by Mr. Music shoving Boyfriend through the hall before he's stopped by Do You Accept offering a gift box. Garrett then returns angry for another turn, and the song finally ends with a sudden Chase Scene as Garrett gets Paloose Man to give him a lift.
• Humanoid Abomination: Expunged is just as much this as it is in the original mod, but now it's created three new beings to combat it in the "frightening" department - Butchatrix, Algebratrix, and Badtrix, all of whom appear in "Deformation".
• Interface Screw:
  • "Disruption" has both strikelines constantly squashing and stretching while moving around in a big enough loop that they'll sometimes overlap with each other.
  • "Applecore" has Bambi returning with the same arrow movement of the previous song, combined with his own arrows appearing in the background behind Bandu's own. At around the halfway point, Expunged later does his Hostile Show Takeover, bringing the circular rotation and randomized scroll speeds from "Unfairness" with him.
  • "Disability" has the arrows constantly spinning, fluctuating in speed continuously.
  • In "Ferocious", Paloose Man and It's a Wizard have special notes that affect the HUD in some way. Paloose Man has flashing siren notes that cause the strikeline to move down (or up if you're on downscroll) slightly if they aren't hit, and It's a Wizard has magic notes that, when hit, cause the screen and HUD to rotate for a while.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing: Expunged is almost always referred to with "it", highlighting its eldritch nature.
• It's All About Me:
  • Classic Dave seems to have this attitude as he gets angry in "Algebra", taking time to rant that the other characters are "stealing his spotlight".
  • The main Dave also desires to be the only person who can control the 3D realm, and goes after Boyfriend because letting him stay means giving him some of that power as well.
• Little Green Man: Downplayed with the Green Alien Monitor. His name confirms that he's an alien and his skin is green as it gets, but due to being a Palette Swap of the Principal of the Thing, he's actually rather tall.
• Marathon Level:
  • Applecore goes on for over 5 minutes, a daunting length even for a song that doesn't take Patter Song to the extreme as the second half does.
  • The battle against the Trixes in "Deformation" makes it to 6 minutes, though thankfully without as much spam as "Applecore".
  • Algebra somehow manages to be even longer, lasting an impressive 11 minutes (longer than even the original's "Splitathon").
  • Determined to top itself, the 1.2 update gives us "Ferocious", which reaches a jaw-dropping 15 minutes and featuring even more dynamic gameplay and visuals.
• The Masquerade: Dave maintains the illusion that outsiders can't control the 3D realm very well out of insecurity and megalomania, and will go to dangerous levels to ensure that.
• Medium Awareness:
  • Expunged, just like in Vs. Dave and Bambi, takes a Bambi-esque form thanks to his spritesheet being the first thing it ever saw. The fact that all of its creations look similar to Bambi as well may have been influenced by this as well.
  • Classic Dave is seemingly aware that Boyfriend restarts song battles when he's defeated, as he threatens to make him "redo this entire 10-minute marathon" before his final section.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Leitmotifs of "Maze" and "Unfairness" appear in this mod's "Applecore", the latter with the latter even being sung by Expunged again. "Algebra" also contains a leitmotif of "House".
  • Dave's sprites in "Disability" are based on his "Splitathon" sprites from the original, as can be told by the mechanical arm holding up his microphone.
  • "Disability" also uses a leitmotif from "Polygonized".
  • Decimated Dave is wearing a robot suit that has the words "robot suit" plastered on it like a label, similar to the version of Dave seen in the 2.0 release of "Dave's Fun Algebra Class".
  • "Algebra" is an 11-minute Marathon Level featuring every single character from Dave's Fun Algebra Class, the original mod (one for a different game) Dave came from, complete with their classic Stylistic Suck appearances.
  • The appearances of Dave and Bambi in "OG" and "Galactic" respectively are based on their first designs from the original mod, with Dave's being his pre-alpha design and Bambi's being his joke design.
• Nice Guy: The natives of the 3D realm are actually very friendly, in stark contrast to what the mod turns Dave, Bambi, and Expunged into. Bandu is a stereotypical nerd who just wants friends, Ringi is a big softie who likes to travel the world to restaurant-hop despite his menacing impressions and has the honor of being the only obsessed fan of Boyfriend that hasn't tried to kill or diss him, Bambom is a Cheerful Child who can charm even the most monstrous of people, and Bendu is a Funny Foreigner with an obsession with keyboards.
• Noodle Incident: At the beginning of "Applecore", Bandu seems to be signing off on a video he's making. Not only did whatever he do take "fucking… three hours", but he advises his viewers not to try it at home because "that's gross".
• No Plot? No Problem!: While the main songs initially follow an Excuse Plot involving Dave going mad with power, it's (presumably) resolved following "Wireframe" with the next three main songs, "Algebra", "Deformation" and "Ferocious" having no real plot.
• Protect This House: The "Cycles" cover has Sart Producer burst into Bandu's house and attempt to kill him, with the terrified Bandu having to fight her off via rapping.
• Scary Musician, Harmless Music: Inverted; Ringi is associated with rock music and machinery in an intimidating fashion, but is actually very friendly, isn't very out of place among the other inhabitants of the 3D realm, and is made out of pure serotonin, i.e. the "happiness chemical."
• Shout-Out:
  • "Algebra" is a reference to the entirety of "Dave's Fun Algebra Class!", featuring nearly every character and taking place in the exact same hallway.
  • Similarly, Decimated Dave's appearance in "Wireframe" is a red version of his appearance in the sequel, "Dave's Fun Algebra Class 2", most noticeable due to his visor and aptly-labeled "robot suit".
  • "Ferocious" is very similar to "Algebra", this time taking from the tangentally-related "Garrett's Funny Animal Game!" and not leaving a single character out.
  • Badtrix's right pose in "Deformation" has his eyes go blank as one of them glows with a four-pointed star, giving him a resemblance to Expunged's "Hell" form from the cancelled Bambi's Purgatory, another D&B-based mod.
  • Pooper Dave's left pose makes his face resemble the Trollface.
  • Sart Producer's voice clips are cut from episodes of The Walten Files.
  • The cover of "Thunderstorm" has Dave appear as a square PNG (even being referred to as "Dave.png") of him making a Dreamworks Face, mimicking the Scooby Doo meme of Shaggy's face.
  • "Ready Loud" has Bandu playing One Night at Flumpty's and getting very mad about it.
• Show Within a Show: Bandu has a fictional YouTube channel that he sometimes posts to. "Sugar Rush" is actually him vlogging together with Boyfriend and Girlfriend after he found some expired candies in the kitchen, and "Ready Loud" presumably takes place during a Let's Play of his.
• Stylistic Suck:
  • Almost every character in the mod was created using Paint 3D specifically to emulate the shoddy 3D animation of the original mod's "Polygonized", resulting in them having the feel of an old 90's game's attempt at such animation.
  • "Algebra" features every character from the amateurish Baldi's Basics mod "Dave's Fun Algebra Class" and keeps them as accurate to their portrayal as possible. This even slips into the song itself with the Diamond Man's section, which is deliberately overcharted and features the same loud, grating voice he had in the original mod.
  • The art in "Wheels" and "Poopers" are both designed to look like crappy doodles, and the music in the latter follows suit by making Dave's Awesome Son as grating on the ears as possible.
  • "Slices" is done in a similar style to the infamous M Best (even being made by the same composer, Top 10 Awesome), with the HUD and sound effects coming from Friday Night Maker and the song itself being shoddily done.
• Sugar Bowl: Once Dave, Bambi, and Expunged are out of the picture, the 3D realm turns out to be way more wholesome than one could ask for, as all of its natural inhabitants are sweet-mannered people who just want to be friends. The problem, of course, is the fact that Expunged keeps trying to create life...
• Take That!: The way GF is portrayed in "Wheels" appears to be making fun of redesigns where she is sexualized by taking it to a humorous version of its logical extreme.
• Tempting Fate: After Garret's Hostile Show Takeover of "Algebra", Dave says "Don't try to steal my spotlight ever again!". Cue Green Alien Monitor taking the spotlight almost instantly after.
• Token Good Teammate: When he's being chased by Paloose Man (and Garrett later on) during "Ferocious", a character named Leggi gives Boyfriend a ride to help him get away from his pursuers.
• Uncanny Valley:
  • Sart Producer, a giant furry robot with a menacing Slasher Smile and an unmoving body save for her head and arms.
  • Forgotten Dave seems to have been created specifically for this, being a version of Dave's 3D model with no face. It gets infinitely worse in its final form, however, which becomes heavily detailed while maintaining the model's motionlessness and facelessness.
• Villainous Breakdown:
  • "Wireframe" takes place directly after "Disability" and has Dave lose his cool over his desperation to keep the 3D world's malleability a secret.
  • Throughout the progression of "Algebra", Classic Dave gets angrier as more and more characters keep interrupting, culminating in him directly hacking Playrobot and ranting multiple times about the situation once he finally gets another turn.
• Walking the Earth: Ringi has apparently been traveling the world in search of new restaurants to try. Nothing quite beats some good-old-fashioned 3Donalds, though.
• Wham Shot:
  • In "Applecore", once the background goes red and the arrows begin to spin around the center of the screen, anyone familiar with Vs. Dave and Bambi will know just who's about to show up.
  • In "RECOVERED-PROJECT", after Forgotten Dave's second phase, the screen briefly cuts to black before revealing his final, Uncanny Valley form.
• Word-Salad Humor: Almost any time a Bambi-like character talks, they will take their dialogue from a random Discord conversation that has nothing to do with the song in the slightest. This includes Bambi exclaiming "Moldy, he's dead!" in "Disruption", Bandu having finished something that took "fucking...three hours" at the start of "Applecore", and Badai complaining how much he hates Piggy when he takes over "Wireframe".
• The Worf Effect: Bandu is canonically confirmed to be a chaos god with Mind over Matter abilities, but he's completely incapable of defending himself once Expunged does a Hostile Show Takeover and sucks up him and Bambi.