Gaming in C++

Here's the deal, /prog/. Over the winter break, I have decided I want to practice and expand my skills, and as such, design a small applet type game using C++. Now, i am fluent in C++, and MFC, but MFC wouldn't exactly be ideal for this. I fully intend for the game to be 2D Sprite based.

What should I look into, what should I use, and how should I go about things? I've heard openGL would work well, is there anything else I ought to remain cognizant of?

Write a game for the GameBoy Advance or something.  It'll be in C++ and you can use call real hardware sprites and shit instead of dicking with the everything-is-a-framebuffer issue of PC land.  Plus, it's a lot easier to design something for a constrained platform than for an open-ended PC that can do anything.