But solving any of these mazes without a strategy guide will probably call for multiple lives because you almost certainly won't be able to find the complete solution in a single run-through. I think that's characteristic of many Super Mario 3 levels, though, because pipes and doors that send you backwards aren't that uncommon.

Other examples of tricky maze levels where you have to explore a lot:

6-5 (you have to fly while holding a Koopa shell in a place where it's not particularly obvious)

7 first fortress (again, you have to fly in one particular place in order to escape)

8 fortress (lots of backtracking, several different ways to solve it)

Edit: I didn't realize that when you said "the original" you were referring to Super Mario Bros. rather than Super Mario 3. I agree that 8-4 in the original Super Mario Bros. is a huge nuisance to figure out although I think you can get it with a degree of discipline, probably in only 1-3 lives. If I remember correctly, there are three branching points where you have to repeatedly choose passageways and you can be sent back if you chose the wrong one. I think the hardest branching point gives either 8 or 9 total possibilities, of which only one is correct.