- “With the power of the Grand Star, we can travel great distances across space and time.”
- —Lubba, Super Mario Galaxy 2
The Grand World Map is the navigation interface of Super Mario Galaxy 2. It shows all the game's Worlds and allows the Starship Mario to immediately travel to any of them, provided they have been unlocked (thus turning the paths between them solid yellow, from dotted blue). The worlds are arranged in a linear zig-zag pattern, and are close enough together that the neighbouring worlds (including unlocked worlds) can be seen when focused on any given world (unlike the World Maps, which only show the galaxies within the world, and nothing exterior to it).
The Grand World Map is first shown to Mario by Lubba after World 2 has been unlocked at the beginning of the game. It can be accessed by pressing 
on the Wii Remote, or by simply pressing the "Zoom out" button found at the top right of the screen. This can only be done from the overworlds, and not while playing through a level: the galaxy will have to be exited before the Grand World Map can be viewed. If the player wishes to return to an individual World at any time, they can either press 
or 
on the Wii Remote while over the World they wish to go to, or use the Star Cursor hand to select the World they wish to visit and click it (if Starship Mario isn't already over the World, it must be clicked once to travel there, then again to enter it). When entering a world, the Starship Mario will always be at the starting position, although viewing the Grand World map and then returning to he World Map the player started in will not shift their position.
When Starship Mario is positioned directly over a World, the name of the World will appear in the top left corner of the screen, and a small rectangular box will appear on the bottom of the screen. In this box will be displayed all galaxies that have currently been unlocked for that particular World, along with any special status conditions for the galaxies, such as the icons for Prankster Comets, Jibberjay races, The Chimp challenges, Gearmo assistance, or simply a recently unlocked galaxy which will be marked as "New." The box will also display a crown icon if the galaxy has been fully completed, as well as a Comet Medal icon when the player has found that galaxy's Comet Medal. Any galaxies which have not been unlocked yet will be indicated by a small dot in the place of its revolving galaxy icon until such time as the galaxy is unlocked. Because the worlds themselves are often non-linear, the order of the galaxies in the box do not always correspond to the actual order; while the first galaxy is always at the farmost left and the last galaxy at the right, the rest are arranged in order of descending total numbers of Power Stars, and then by the order at which they are unlocked (the Star List is organized the same way).
Worlds found on the Grand World Map
Gallery
World 1 as viewed from the Grand World Map.
World 2 as viewed from the Grand World Map.
World 3 as viewed from the Grand World Map.
World 4 as viewed from the Grand World Map.
World 5 as viewed from the Grand World Map.
World 6 as viewed from the Grand World Map.
World S as viewed from the Grand World Map.
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | グランドワールドマップ[1] Gurando Wārudo Mappu |
Grand World Map | |
| Chinese | 光榮大銀河地圖[2] Guāngróng dà yínhé dìtú |
Grand Galactic Map |
Trivia
- When the player accesses the Grand World Map, additional echoing sound effects will be added to the background of the music for the particular World that Starship Mario is in, until the player switches back to the regular World Map. This is similar to using the Pull Star in one of the domes onboard the Comet Observatory to view galaxies in Super Mario Galaxy, which would add echoing sound effects to the background music as well. The separate echo sound channel for World 6 apparently has the main channel music combined in it, but quieter. If they combine together they make the main track slightly louder.[3]
- When the player accesses the Grand World Map from a particular World, the music for that World will continue to play even if the player positions Starship Mario above another World on the Grand World Map; it is only when the player actually enters another World that the music for that World will begin to play.
- The Grand World Map's layout resembles the scale of the universe, with each world representing astronomical objects at different scales being part of a much larger object (represented by the next world): World 1 represents the orbit of Earth, World 2 represents the Solar System, World 3 represents the Orion Arm (the part of the Milky Way where the Solar System is located), World 4 represents the entire Milky Way, World 5 represents the Local Group (the cluster of galaxies containing the Milky Way), World 6 represents the massive black holes forming the center of galaxies, and finally World S, featuring a planet with star-shaped continents surrounded by rainbows, represents the possibility of multiple universes.