Find Myself in Possession of a CD Unit... Advice?

For the exclusive content in neogeo cd game i list some here
www.neogeocdworld.info/html/jeux/jeux/bonus.htm

For the probleme in some NeoGeo CD conversion
www.neogeocdworld.info/html/jeux/jeux/differences.htm

For loading i realise some test here
www.neogeocdworld.info/html/dossiers/temps_chargements.htm

For me the NeoGeo CD pad is the best for shoot, sport and puzzle,
for the Fight Game i prefere the Hori Stick

NeoGeo CD is clearly perfect for puzzle, shooting and sport (and some first fighting game)

Congrats on picking up a NGCD system Boogie.
I've only used a CDZ and never experienced any overheating problems. Loading times are significantly faster with the CDZ so I would say yes it's definitely the way to go. Did you look at AmigaJay's loading times PDF in the download section? There are a surprising number of games which only need to load at the start.

They are really nice controllers but after quite a lot of use both of mine ended up with faulty thumbsticks. Not sure how common that is. I do remember Xian Xi posted a video showing a fix. I never actually tried to fix them because I ended up selling off my NGCD collection.

Yes I played some of the later games too on my CDZ and never experienced any issues. I used to have 70+ NGCD games.

For what it's worth, a lot of the early 1990-1992 games ported to Neo Geo CD have very minute cuts or changes the sound (stuff like "Alpha Mission 2 doesn't have the FWOOSH sound effect at the end of stage 1" or "In NAM-1975, the stage 2 midboss has a different sound effect when he drops to the ground"). However, they seem to be 100% perfect replications in term of gameplay, irrespective of the region (King of the Monsters 2 still has the hidden 1ups items people only discovered a few years back, for instance).

Games that have notable exclusive or altered contents:

-? Aggressor of Dark Kombat apparently has a 2nd loop? I read about on a French neo geo forum but I never got far enough in the game to confirm myself.
-Magician Lord on Neo Geo CD is a weird mix of the MVS and AES versions: it has instant respawn like MVS but one additional (blue) square of health and the expanded intro of the AES. It's also generally easier with midbosses that have less health and move more slowly, like it's set to level 1 (but the stage layouts were not altered and the punishment monster if you loiter around levels is still there, so it's not that much easier).
-Pulstar has a new cheatcode and the soundtrack is the same, but mixed in stereo.


Notable cuts:

-Aero Fighters 3 has less frames of animation for the rotating 3D models on the character slection and a dumbed down explosion for the moonbase mid-boss (I *think* it may also be missing some graphics like the fish that show up for one frame or the random eel midboss but I can't say for sure).
-Metal Slug is missing some frames of animations and background graphics. This is most obvious with the flags you can shoot at the stage of start 2.
-Ninja Combat is missing the voice acting (boo!)


Pulstar pro-tip: people bemoan the load times, but that's because the new (uninteresting) cutscenes have their own loading screen. You can disable them by switching "Visual:On" in the option menu to Off. This cuts down the load times by half.

glowsquid -
Good stuff to know. Thank for the info!
The Pulstar tip will definitely come in handy as I really am keen on picking it up (once I find a copy for a reasonable price)!

Garbinski-
I believe that it does but am by no means certain.

Also, a bit of an update. I got the chance a while back to try out Crossed Swords 2 with my brother and was unfortunately a bit underwhelmed. I think the infinite continues really kills any sense of accomplishment. (Will have to check if the second scenario does likewise.) We also had a bit of trouble with making sense out of what we were seeing as having our characters overlap made a mess of the screen. I'll definitely have to put more time into it (especially solo) before I can form a real opinion, though.

Windjammers, on the other hand, was a total hit. We couldn't stop playing and my brother almost immediately ordered a copy of the Switch version. And the load times were a complete non-issue.

I vaguely recall you posting some tracks from the AOF3 AST in some other thread and enjoying them then as well.

The only truly strong draw that AOF3 has for me, though, is the graphics. So it's hard for me to get overly excited when those get downgraded. (Plus, I have a regular CD unit, and waiting a whole minute between matches is a bit much.)