Yeah, it's weird that I can believe the stages completely but not the characters at all. Raiden, Dino, and Evil Cole are all out of place. And the different art for Toro, Heihachi, etc, is weird.
Spike's got Sega All Stars Alex Kidd syndrome where the anime look didn't make the move to 3D very well.
But this would only put the roster to 20, and there's going to be more than that. Although if we assume Gale is correct, you could fulfill both the more females hint and the RPG character hint with Lightning. Toss Kat in there to round it out and it'd make sense.