Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl said:

“While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character,” they said. “This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in ‘re-locking’ Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future.”

Courtney Love also seems to be up in arms about the whole thing and have been posting on her twitter all week long about it. She claims she never approved Kurts appearance in the game and is going to sue activision.

She thought Kurt would despise the rhythm game “let alone this avatar.”

Activision Released a statement:

Activision secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Love to use the singer’s likeness as a fully playable character in “Guitar Hero 5,” which includes “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Lithium” among its 85 tracks that can be played with instrument-shaped controllers.

It sounds a bit like bull on Courtney’s side although I’m pretty sure Cobain would not like Guitar Hero, or his presence in it.

Initial reviews of the game are extremely positive and It seems Activision did a pretty good job with the game. From what I see there is nothing hugely groundbreaking about the new game, but there are a bunch of smaller changes that make the game more accessible. A few notable changes include the ability to use any combo of instruments while playing in a band as well as the brand new party mode in which the music will play like a playlist and players can jump in and out of the game at will without it stopping.

For more info on the new game check out some of the reviews below!

Guitar Hero 5 Reviews

• 1up.com – Rating: A
• IGN.com – Score: 8.9/10
• TeamXbox.com – Score: 8.7/10
• Gamespy.com – Score: 4 1/2 out of 5

Have you played Guitar Hero 5?
If you already have your copy of Guitar Hero 5 nestled safely in your console of choice, tell us how it is!
Reviews from the game industry can be good, but I always prefer to hear what the everday regular Gutiar Hero player feels about the game.

If you would like to post a review please leave it in the comments below!

If not, you better get on it! There are less than 2 days left to enter the contest!

Let me give you a little refresher on what you can win if you enter!

Win A Guitar Hero 5 Party For You And Five Friends!

The party prize pack will include:
1 – Nintendo Wii video game console
1 – Guitar Hero 5 Bundle (Band Kit) for Nintendo Wii
5 – copies of Guitar Hero 5 for Nintendo Wii – party favors for your friends!
1 – $200 AmEx pre-paid debit card to buy party supplies
1 – Flip Ultra digital camcorder to record the fun

Here is How To Enter The Contest!

Here is what you have to do:

1. Sign up for a Twitter Account (Or Log in if you have one!)
2. Go to our Twitter @MusicHeroX and start following us.
3. Then you must post the following line on your own Twitter!
(Extremely Important! If you don’t tweet the text exactly you will not be counted!)

@MusicHeroX Just entered to WIN a Guitar Hero 5 Party Pack from MusicHeroX.com! Just Follow and Retweet to enter! http://xr.com/GH5Contest

Click Here retweet and Win!

There ya go! Contest End Tomorrow night at 11:59PM Est.

Get your last entries in now!

- (Want to Win a Guitar Hero 5 Prize Pack? Click Here!)

Guitar Hero 5 Information

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Guitar Hero 5 Sections

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Guitar Hero 5 Contest

Interested in Winning your Copy of Guitar Hero 5?

Click to find out how to Enter our Guitar Hero 5 Contest!

For those who are getting the game TODAY, feel free to leave a little review in the comments!

Today a Guitar Hero 5 Kurt Cobain Trailer was released to the public, and I have to say, it looks really good.

“Kurt Cobain is one of the most recognizable frontmen in rock ‘n’ roll history and it’s an honor to have two of Nirvana’s masterpieces included in Guitar Hero 5,” said Tim Riley, Vice President of Music Affairs for Activision. “This is the first time the original recording of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ has ever been licensed in an entertainment property and we’re thrilled to offer Guitar Hero® fans exclusive access to the unreleased live version of ‘Lithium.’”

In order for Activision to get the rights to feature the songs in the game they had to jump through quite a few hoops that include getting permission from widow Courtney Love, Nirvana’s Drummer Dave Grohl, as well as Universal Publishing.

“Courtney supplied us with photos and videos and knew exactly what she wanted Kurt to look like,” Riley told Rolling Stone. “She picked the wardrobe and hair style, which turned out to be the ‘Teen Spirit’ look.”

Check out the below trailer to see how it all came together.

I wonder how Kurt Cobain would feel about being featured in such a game? He was not about all the popularity and all that crap and Guitar Hero is sure to only increase that. I guess we will never know. R.I.P. Kurt Cobain.

Adding to the star studded list of Guita Hero 5 playable characters Muse front man,  Matt Bellamy,  was announced today as a playable character in Guitar Hero 5. I watched the trailer (posted below) and I have to say it looks great. The movements are so smooth and Matt was jumping and spinning and moving all over the stage.

With a about a week until Guitar Hero 5 hits stores, I can say I am looking foward to it.

Check out the new Matt Bellamy Guitar Hero Trailer!

Heres the official quote from the Activision Rep:

“Guitar Hero 5 downloadable content will be compatible with future Guitar Hero and Band Hero games. However, the advancements and innovations made to the franchise do not allow for downloadable content to be backwards compatible with Guitar Hero World Tour,” the rep said.

It’s not all bad though. All he songs you got on Guitar Hero World Tour will work on Guitar Hero 5! This makes it the only disc you really need!

[via 1up.com]

The article contains a bunch of info so I will pick out some of the main points for you.

In order to add new online features the team “ripped out all of the online code” that had been in place since Guitar Hero 3 and started again from scratch. One of the improvements the team achieved was the ability for eight separate Wii consoles to join together for an online band session.

Another new online feature is that Guitar Hero 5 will support the Wii system’s friend list instead of having its own unique set of friend codes. Bala revealed that the first time the game is run you will be asked if you would like to import your friends list from your Wii address book.

When asked what graphical improvements were made to the game, Bala responded, “the rendering quality has significantly improved this year.” Furthermore, Bala explained that the team “changed the lighting model” so that the number of lights on objects and characters could be vastly improved while maintaining a high frame rate. The developer also spent time on improving animations with better motion capture and animation fidelity.

Guitar Hero 5 will also feature the ability to stream music directly from an SD card. Players no longer need to have space available on their Wii in order to play downloadable tracks. They will also be able to create their own custom play lists on their SD cards and play the music in game as if it were right on the game disc.

Well, ladies and gentleman, today is your lucky day!

In preparation for the highly anticipated release of Guitar Hero 5 our good friends at GameStop decided to put on a little contest for the readers of Music Hero X and give away a HUGE prize pack for one special Guitar Hero fan! And when I say HUGE, I am not kidding.

So what will you Win?

Win A Guitar Hero 5 Party For You And Five Friends!

The party prize pack will include:
1 – Nintendo Wii video game console
1 – Guitar Hero 5 Bundle (Band Kit) for Nintendo Wii
5 – copies of Guitar Hero 5 for Nintendo Wii – party favors for your friends!
1 – $200 AmEx pre-paid debit card to buy party supplies
1 – Flip Ultra digital camcorder to record the fun

If you win you can hook up your brand new Wii and Guitar Hero 5 Band Kit, spend $100 on food and $100 on booze (or soda if your under 21), invite some friends over, and play some GH5! Then after you can videotape your friends fighting over the 5 extra copies of Guitar Hero 5!

So How Do I Win This Extremely Awesome Contest?!
We are going to make it really simple to enter this contest.

Here is what you have to do:

1. Sign up for a Twitter Account (Or Log in if you have one!)
2. Go to our Twitter @MusicHeroX and start following us.
3. Then you must post the following line on your own Twitter!
(Extremely Important! If you don’t tweet the text exactly you will not be counted!)

@MusicHeroX Just entered to WIN a Guitar Hero 5 Party Pack from MusicHeroX.com! Just Follow and Retweet to enter! http://xr.com/GH5Contest

Click Here retweet and Win!

When Does the Contest Begin and End?
The contest begins on August 22nd, 2009 and will span a full 2 weeks. It will conclude on Friday September 5th, 2009 at 11:59pm! The winner of the contest will be released the following day on Music Hero X as well as twitter!

You have 2 weeks to enter, get going!

Thanks to GameStop for sponsoring the contest and if you don’t want to chance your Guitar Hero 5 future on a contest you can pre-order the game at GameStop.com!

We knew previously that Johnny Cash would be contributing some music to the upcoming Guitar Hero 5, but we did not know he was going to be charactarized in the game.

The motion capture for the in-game Johnny cash will be provided by the J Cash tribute artist Terry Lee Goffee.

Check out the trailer below to see Guitar Hero Johnny Cash in Action!

[via Kotaku]