The Japanese system is tops. In that regard, you can look for one with a higher serial number, which means it will have newer internal components than a us system. You might even be able to find one very recently made! Terry is right about the game SS3 having a blood code for the us cd version of the game, its the same code used for SS4 on neo cd. With a cd system, if you get a us one, you can change the jumper settings so as to take out all the censorship functions; you actually change the jumpers from the us settings to the japanese ones. Or, you can get a japanese cd or cdz system and not even have to worry about it. But if a cart system is what you are looking at, I would definitely go with a japanese system so you can enjoy all the blood and bounce SNK games are renown for. About the only games which have no English are the puzzle games, but everything else should be bilengual.