Kurt Cobain

Remember in NBA Jam when you could play as Bill Clinton and Al Gore, or even the Beastie Boys, Randall Cunningham and Frank Thomas?  Do you remember your excitement when you could unlock the skinny kid of an Acclaim VIP and dunk on people as “Air Dog”, most surely the digital athleticism that inspired the Professor and Jason Williams?  Guitar Hero’s latest edition brought some of that feeling to music and video game lovers with their latest edition that features two Nirvana songs and the playable character of Kurt Cobain. My initial thoughts were that the feature was pretty cool, as they even put Kurt in the famed Daniel Johnston tee, and green cardigan that really match his real life wardrobe.  Beyond that I didn’t think much of it, and haven’t played or seen the new Guitar Hero, or any for that matter.  If someone asked me earlier what I thought about Nirvana being the Guitar Hero I would have said it seemed like a great idea, that was until I saw the following video…

 
In the words of Walter Sobchak, “Has the whole world gone crazy?!?!”   The makers of Guitar Hero have made Kurt Cobain’s character unlockable, which means gamers can use Cobain to sing any song they wish.  It’s an idea that may seem good in theory til you realize that it gives way to the f**kery that happened in the video above.  Kurt Cobain playing digital karaoke with Bon Jovi pretty much violates everything Cobain and his music seemed to stand for during their breakout in the early 90’s, and for some younger fans not famliar with the atmosphere that birthed Nirvana, it gives the wrong impression of an important figure in the evolution of grunge, rock, and music as a whole.  Nirvana’s surviving members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic are upset as well and have asked Activision to re-lock Cobain’s character.  Via statement the two penned jointly, they say that while they ok’ed the usage of two Nirvana songs, they were not aware that Kurt Cobain would be unlockable. 
 
“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. 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.”
 
They blame Courtney Love, while Love blames them.  Activision’s Tim Riley also puts the responsiblity on Love.  He told Rolling Stone:
 
“Courtney supplied us with photos and videos and knew exactly what she wanted Kurt to look like,” Riley told RS. “She picked the wardrobe and hair style, which turned out to be the ‘Teen Spirit’ look, then we went back and forth over changes — some subtle, some not so subtle… She was actually great to work with. She got back with comments pretty quickly.”
 
I know two things, Courtney Love is known to get pretty messed up, so I don’t necessarily trust her memory.  I also know that there’s no way they’re going to relock Kurt Cobain.  Bon Jovi may just be the tip of the iceberg.