Hi Ross, got a quick question for you...
Did you play Sonic Heroes with a keyboard? I had a hard time, particularly in that stupid Haunted Mansion "gauntlet" bullshit.
However, later I plugged in a 360 controller and that section was extremely easy for me.
My theory is that a lot of the jumping/homing logic has something to do with the stick direction, and the arrow keys give very imprecise input.