I've had various sprite issues with MVS stuff all through my collection. I assume you've cleaned the contacts thoroughly with IPA/Contact cleaner and even a rubber after that just to buff them up? the amount of carts I've bought that have had issues and have been fine after a proper clean has surprised me.
failing that and the issue is missing sprites, next I'd check the C ROMS (C1-C8,
https://wiki.neogeodev.org/index.php?title=C_ROM ). these house all the sprite data. I bought a Shock Troopers cart "untested" that ended up looking like it had never been played. had some missing sprites on the title screen. everything looked great on the board around the CROMs until I spotted what looked like the tinniest bit of corrosion on a trace coming off a pin on the back of the board. could barely see it but I had nothing else to go on at the time so done a continuity test and it didn't beep so ran a wire from that pin to the pin on the next chip it was going to and HEY PRESTO! all fixed. don't discount any minor imperfection when dealing with these. Even going so far as reflowing the solder on all the pins on the CROMS just to be sure there's no dry solder joints as these carts are starting to get on a bit and it could be an issue.
If it's happened only once I'd not worry too much about it. if it happens every time in your machine and not your friends. try cleaning the contacts in your machine as well. Then as Mc-Q said, you might need to start looking at 5v level or the possibility of a bad chip but I don't think that's the case if it's good elsewhere.
