go get the demo of sonic foundry viscosity 1.5 off of the sony website (they bought sonic foundry) It is the best 2d pixel art program out there, the sprites can then be used with gamemaker (which is in turn the best 2d game maker out there, also, code everything, don\'t use the little buttons.) Also, gamemaker is very powerfull, just need to learn how to use it, which takes a lot of time and testing.
Edit: Also, self learning is the only way to learn sprites, otherwise they always just look like someone else\'s. Just mess around with them long enough and they will start to look good.
Edit2: Also, play lots of snes, nes, and gameboy advance rpg\'s/japanese games to get an idea of how good sprites look.