The use of Kurt Cobain's likeness in the recently released "Guitar Hero 5" game has drawn the ire of his former bandmates and his widow, Courtney Love, despite the fact that the game manufacturers maintain they received licensing rights in a written agreement signed by Love.

Love, who reportedly worked closely with Activision in developing the Nirvana frontman's likeness for the game, lashed out on her Twitter account saying "FOR THE RECORD I DID NOT APPROVE KURTS AVATAR FOR GUYITARHERO5... I think Kurt would despise this game alone let alone this avatar."

Nirvana's Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl issued a press release saying they were dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the "Guitar Hero" game. "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."

Novoselic and Grohl, who reportedly approved the use of two Nirvana songs in the game, said they had no control over the use of Cobain's likeness, which is the sole property of his estate. The problem as they see it is when players use Cobain's avatar to perform other songs included in the release.

"We urge Activision to do the right thing in 're-locking' Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future," the two said in their statement. "It's hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists' music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better."

The ruckus over Cobain's image in the "Guitar Hero" game surfaced after the release of a YouTube highlight video (included below) that shows the influential grunge rocker's avatar rapping and singing hair-metal songs.

Love said the vision of her late husband jamming to non-Nirvana songs is "NECROPHILIC" and "VILE." In her tweets, she said "Welcome to my NIGHTMARE," and "Yeah well sue activision this is disgusting but theres a lot MORE."

Love's attorney told TMZ that Courtney did give permission for the game makers to use Kurt's name and likeness, but she never, ever signed off on a deal that would allow them to make Kurt sing other artists' songs in the game.

"Activision is exploiting Kurt's image in a manner anathema to the very essence of his music, spirit and essence," the lawyer told TMZ. "I along with Ms. Cobain hope those who love Kurt's music strongly voice their sentiments to Activision and demand his image not be debased by singing the songs of Bon Jovi," he said.

In addition to Bon Jovi songs, the Cobain likeness can be used with all of the 85 "Guitar Hero 5," songs including tunes by Blink-182, Johnny Cash, Megadeth, Motley Crue, Stevie Wonder, Beastie Boys, Beck, The Killers, TV on the Radio, Dire Straits, Billy Idol, Duran Duran, Elton John, Iron Maiden, John Mellencamp, Grand Funk Railroad and many others.

In addition to Cobain, "Guitar Hero 5" features Carlos Santana and Johnny Cash as playable characters. Previous "Guitar Hero" editions have featured the likenesses of Jimi Hendrix, Billy Corgan, Ted Nugent, Sting, Ozzy Osbourne, Travis Barker and members of Aerosmith.