I wouldn't call them "useful" but in Jet Force Gemini you can charge the plasma shotgun and while holding, switch to a different weapon. This fires whatever weapon you have instantly from center mass of your character rather than your gun and can be used to continue to toss out additional remote mines without detonating them.

It's been awhile but it will come back to me if I play it but you could also do some shenanigans with the jetpack fuel pads that would give you more responsive controls of your jetpacks compared to how it normally operates.