As a starter, if this thread is in the wrong area, please move it almighty moderator(s).  :-)

I've been wanting to play games like Zelda Parallel Worlds and Terranigma (Once I finish Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia, that is) and wondered what the straight up compatability would be if I just purchased a copy off of eBay or here or somewhere else and then inserted it into my North America NTSC Super Nintendo?  

I also wondered where specifically is the best place to acquire these?  I do ever so enjoy having CIB titles like so many fine people on here, so if I were to purchase it, I'd "prefer" to do it in one fell swoop.  What would be the best place to do such a thing?

Please help a brotha' out NA brethren!

I'm not quite sure where to start with answering this, but I guess here it goes.

If you are looking to play Terranigma on your NTSC SNES, I assume you are going to buy a reproduction game? That is probably your best route. Some members on here offer repros for fairly cheap. This game would run perfectly fine on your system as that would be the point of the repro (yea I guess there are repros made for other regions, but you get the idea).

Zelda: Parallel Worlds is a hack and could be offered by the same sort of people that are into making/selling repros. Again you should have zero issues with compatibility so long as you are buying an NTSC repro (which is what the majority of them are on this site).

Hope that helps!

Yes I would want a repro of Terranigma as I at this stage in my life have no desire to learn Japanese (as I say this I'm hoping that the repro is in English ...) I'm aware that Parallel Worlds is an extensive hack to the Original LttP rom. That said, thanks for the info about compatability ... do you Zeldaboy or anyone else have a recommended place to purchase the repros and their corresponding manuals/boxes at? Also looking for (again, repro for English here) Secret of Mana 2 CIB too. Thanks for any and all help!

In case you weren't aware, there is a legitimate English version of Terranigma (the Japanese version actually isn't even called Terranigma), but it was only released in Europe and you would need a certain model Pro Action Replay to play it on your console.

I actually was not aware of that. Would the Pro Action Replay allow me to play any PAL game or was it exclusive to Terranigma?

Since none of the above three were standard release carts for North America, I guess I'm up for whatever the cheapest option to get me English CIBs of each. If the PAL route w/Pro Action Replay would do that then I'm all for it ...

Cool info on that though, I always love learning stuff about the older systems especially :-)

Yes, the Pro Action Replay would allow you to play other European games. I don't know for sure if it will play all of them though. The English PAL Terranigma is kinda expensive CIB and it's hard to find the correct model Pro Action Replay (the more common model will play some European games, but Terranigma isn't one of them).

If you want CIB copies, you'll need to go to timewalkgames.com, but if you're happy without manuals I would actually recommend getting the boxes from uncletusk.com (also a member here) and the cartridges from either jjrepro if allowed (cheaper option but requires donor, mailing in, and you'll need to check the rules in her thread for new members if any) or ocdreproductions.com (quick and easy, costs $50 each, excellent work and best labels out there as far as I recall). Feel free to pm me if you have any questions or need more direction.

And the Pro Action Replay plus a PAL Terranigma will cost you more than just an NTSC repro of the game

Very cool guys. Regarding the boxes, is the member from uncletusk.com username Uncle Tusk or something else? I'd like to message him directly about some box questions as I may pick up the boxes before the repros ... love me some boxes :-)

To Clarify, Terranigma ONLY works with a very specific version of the Action Replay MKII model. It does not work with the majority of Action Replay units.  Also all of the other good PAL exclusives that are worth playing (like Daze before Christmas) do not work at all.  Importing PAL games is pretty much useless, painful, and expensive. Stick to repros and if you wanted a PAL exclusive game (theres very few actually worth playing)  Im sure you could find a talented repro maker to hack the file to run in NTSC.