What is the best format to export to from 3d studio for a simple game? I need vertices and normals. I tried OBJ, but it isn't getting the materials right.

Well you could also use the ASE format, but in your case I think OBJ would be a more appropriate format because of its simplicity, plus it does provides all the info you want (vertex, material, normal info).
What exactly is your problem with the materials?

I use ASE export,but if scene is rather big and it consist of a lot of geometrical objects size of exported file will be enormous. This is because ASE export includes a lot of advanced information about scene and about each geomatrical object.But in spite of this I think that ASE export is the best.