This game does have a quick restart that is not "Return to Home menu, close program". Instead you can hit L+R+Start, and the game will quickly restart.
...It is a very handy shortcut, especially when your favourite character gets flattened by an untimely enemy critical hit...
Also, the reviewer seemed to forget the last North American installment of Fire Emblem was Shadow Dragon on the DS, though frankly I would forget about that game too. We unfortunately missed out on the much-improved sequel remake, which was Nintendo's first trial of Casual mode and Avatar creation, but Awakening definitely polished everything up.
Also a feature that's starting to come into play is the SpotPass content. You can summon teams of legacy characters to buy items from, battle, or recruit the team leader. You can do the same thing with StreetPass teams, but you'll hire their Avatar instead. Technically this means you always have a source of new characters if any of your main team kicks the bucket, though these are personality-less bonus characters with no support conversations.
Other handy shortcuts:
-You can turn off the slide guides by pressing A on an empty tile and going into options. By turning the tutorials off, you have access to all the game's features such as Trade and Pair Up without having to read the tutorial guide for it in a later chapter. Tutorials are disabled by default on Hard mode or higher but it's handy to know if you start on Normal mode.
-Holding A allows you to fast forward movement animations and the battle scene.
-Pressing Start allows you to skip battle cutscenes.
My verdict on this game? One of the very best Fire Emblem games ever made with real stellar production value to boot, and one of the must-own titles on the 3DS.
