I like the idea, good work! On the issue with the stats not working after you restart the game, I believe that it is the transitions (fade) that seems to mess them up. I don't know if it will help you or not, but eliminating the fade transition between layouts should fix the issue.
If you still want a fade between lay outs, try using the panel object and set it to plain black. Give it a fade behavior and set the events to progress to the next layout on fade out finished.