Video game language / tutorials

I'm looking to code a simple adventure game, perhaps like the original LoZ. Which languages would be good for someone with a little bit of coding experience to accomplish this? Where would I find examples and tutorials for not only coding the mechanics, but doing things like importing graphics and sprites? Any help is appreciated.

Experiment with C++ and SDL.
Write little stuff first, perhaps do some simple classes and functions that you can reuse or rework in your final game.
Like some code that loads a sprite from an image file, a sprite manager, then code a simple application where you move sprites around.
Don't start too big.