I've found a few great "appetizer" type games:
1. William and Sly - For a free game (or even not a free game), the graphics and music are beautifully done. You play a little fox, floating around, breaking through secret walls, blowing up rocks, opening chests, and finding pixies. Yes, I know that pixies really don't sound that hardcore, but think Zelda fairies rather than Tinkerbell. Plus, the pixies are trapped in ice and you have to free them by lighting yourself up with fireworks and racing to their little jails. AND, I think you might learn to fly once you collect enough. I don't really know what the point is to this game, but I suspect that it's unfolding into a pretty cool storyline.
2. Talesworth Adventures - You play a guy named Questy whose main objective is to move from one level to the next on a map by opening doors, fighting ogres, and avoiding pitfalls. He can be lured by placing bags of money to entice him in certain directions. I know that it doesn't sound that complex, but the game play is seamless and occasionally challenging, especially if you add in the goal of collecting all the jewels.
3. Cthulhu Saves the World - My husband's first comment was that "this looks like original Zelda." Oh, it might look like Zelda, but the snarky comments make you quickly realize that this throwback is something different. It's a turn-based RPG with a serious attitude, a lot of attention to detail, and a great sense of humor about the Lovecraftian world and RPG games in general. (And I hate to be yet another Cthulhu poser, but I've at least read Lovecraft and, let's be honest, anyone reading Lovecraft these days is a poser. It's not like you just happened to stumble upon The Call of Cthulhu on some dusty shelf at the library.) It's available on Steam for $2.99, where it comes with another game that I haven't tried (Breath of Death VII), or on Xbox for 80 gamer points, which might be... a dollar? Who knows. That's why they charge you in gamer points rather than money... so you don't have to worry about those things.
(Screenshot stolen from the link above, which gives a much more thorough review than I did.)
